My First Days

After six days of instruction – three per class with the ninety-minute block schedule – here are my initial impressions:

English Language Development – Level 4 (Early Advanced)

After taking on the transitional SDAIE class last year, I move down a level to teach more students who are learning English for the first time. I actually student-taught this class just before receiving my credential, and I recall the curricular freedom that absolutely thrilled me.

His First Day

Our son Lance will begin kindergarten in five days, and my wife and I are staying up late at night – way too late for parents who have two children in diapers also living in the house. Are the nerves of our first-born’s entry into public education, the anxiety over his chances for success, or the tears shed at the somewhat “official” loss of toddler-ness keeping us up past our bedtime?

Not so much. We’re banging our heads against his three-hour school day.

The Bus to Nowhere

This is the personal statement I am submitting to my administrative credential graduate program. Some of it was borrowed from previous entries, so please forgive the repetition.

Every President in my adult life has tried to give America’s public schools a sense of direction.

In 1994, the Clinton administration gave us “Goals 2000”, the first mandate for states to develop and publish specific curricula in the form of content standards. Eight years later, Bush ratcheted up the testing requirements – compelling not only the states to assess students to their standards, but also the schools and districts to make adequate yearly progress on those assessments. Now, the Obama White House is offering bountiful cash rewards for states that adopt his Education Department’s own Common Core standards.