Musings from Under the Umbrellas

Even with two umbrellas over me, I managed a sunburn today. I barely moved from the chair. Feet in the sand, earbuds in, and recline position locked down, I had the loveliest of naps today. In an intermittent web browse (thank you Droid phone) I learned that the hateful anti-teacher legislation most definitely originated from Jeb Bush, and that there has been a decent amount of funding from Publix and Office Depot. I will have to investigate further, because I really may need to find a new place to shop.

A relaxing day was in order. I have no idea what the future may possibly hold, hateful anti-teacher legislation or not, my job or not, more consulting or not, but I'm much better at turning off the worry switch. For now I'll be savoring every moment of this vacation with my family.

April 3- Swim Date

Now it feels like break: a trip to the nursery, 3 hours of power-washing and the official opening of the pool season in our backyard. The water temperature is 74, the air temperature is 84 and I am sporting my first homeowner's sunburn of the year. Ev planted about 76 zinnias and a couple of roses too. We had grilled steak and chicken, and a salad so big it took two people to spin it. Tomorrow, beach date.

Lesson De-Planned

Teaching vocabulary has been fun. In our class we are working on fabulous adjectives, replacements for the "baby words" of elementary school. Not happy or sad anymore, my sixth grade charges are elated or melancholy, thank you. The kids seem to take joy in tossing in these words into conversation and into their writing, often sharing the same sentences with street, slang, or southernisms. We play vocabulary games, use graphic organizers, make vocabulary cartoons, and our pre-holiday celebration was a rousing game of vocabulary Jeopardy!

I feel confident that these kids will know these words forever, and maybe some of them will even be bitten by the wordie bug and become interested in other intriguing words.

But with the proposed new plan for educational evaluation, I might find little use in these activities, for these words would be of no value unless they happen to be among the specifically tested material on the high-stakes assessment. Too bad. They actually seem to be enjoying both the process and the product of their learning.