Apologies

My apologies. I am fairly new to the blogosphere and I'm not sure how to embed links. My link to The Reading Zone doesn't work, but there is a link on Blogs I Love at the side.

What's Happening to our Curriculum?

Hop over to The Reading Zone thereadingzone.wordpress.com/ to check out the latest on the state of our Readers and NCLB.

Personally, I was at a 1/2 workshop yesterday where we were supposed to be coming up with A Writing Curriculum. Astounding! They wanted to prescribe what assignments should be taught at what time of year(some down to the exact month)! I haven't been part of this group for a couple of years and I can't believe the turn it's taken. Why do we think that closing achievement gaps and higher scores on HIGH STAKES TESTS can only be accomplished with more skill and drill? What has NCLB done to us? How can I help more? My own progressive school district (I thought) seems to have ventured to "the dark side."

All Gone?

Well, my oldest made her First Communion last Saturday and looked gorgeous. There's something about an 8 year-old in a white dress and veil that makes a mother's heart stop for a second and want to slow life down. A party with lots of relatives rounded out our day, even though my twin son was contagious (?) with some crazy virus....Then, later, as twin son was in the bathtub for, I'm not kidding about 7 minutes, his twin sister came in with a HUGE smile of pride on her face. I looked up to see the hem of her pink skirt in shreds- she found the scissors. Then....I looked up to see HALF (I'm not JOKING- HALF) of her long hair gone. Two lovely HUGE chunks from either side. My husband decided eventually that it looked like her own version of a mullet. Her smile faded as she studied my face more carefully. Slowly I walked to her room to find the pieces of her once gorgeous golden hair. I scooped them up like a newborn kitten and deposited them into the top of a shoe box. I think maybe I'll bag it up and keep it for her wedding day. I know, I know, kids do this all the time, but after all of the chaos of the weekend, YIKES! I shuffled her off to "the haircut store" (as she called it) to get it "fixed" and she ended up with the cutest little pixie cut I've ever seen. Thanks, Kristi! It's a good thing she's completely adorable or she wouldn't be able to pull it off!

Good Intentions

Well, when I started out, I guess I had some really huge plans for this blog and they all got away from me. So, almost a year later, I will start over and begin by blogging about the last great YA book I read. My daughter and I just finished reading The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry, which we both found to be absolutely hysterical. Though she is 8, she has what I consider a very developed sense of dry humor and found humor in many references in the book. I was surprised. Though this book is a far cry from The Giver in terms of genre, I admire the satirical way Lowry has used common themes from all kinds of classic literature.

On my nightstand:

The Zookeeper's Wife (to finish)
Midnighters
The Forgotten Desert Mothers