A slice of life...

Tonight I cut my thumb...it's pretty deep and I think that it's wide. I held it tight to stop the bleeding and got help to bandage it. You might wonder what I was doing...well, I have to admit, I was trying to get some ice cream. There is a delicious Persian Ice that was so hard I used a knife (duh!) and it slipped and cut my thumb. Sometimes common sense does not take over!

It makes me think of other times when we take (potentially dangerous) risks to have an outcome that we hope for. As a teacher, I feel like my career is filled with these risks. Now, I am not naive, there are no knives involved, but since I am invested my students' success, when it is not, it can cut like a knife. The risks in education are high...so much that students' futures are just one element. With the onset of an increase of high stakes testing, each teacher is now potentially at risk due to their students' test scores. Imagine what this might mean, teachers who might be interested in low income, potentially lower achieving areas would move to higher achieving, often higher income, districts to protect their jobs. Lower income areas would then become more of the "have nots' than they may already be. A assessment system which is supposed to "improve all academics" actually can become a system to divide the rich from the poor in the name of "racing to the top."

As I move into this year, I want to focus on educating my students and ways to move beyond the high-stakes testing. I want to re-energize my students and have them excited about learning...

It might feel a bit like a cut with a knife, but the laser focus around my students learning is the most important slice of life I have...