Brian Eno – Music for Airports 1/1

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Finally back in Los Angeles. The trip to Portland was much deserved, and much needed. Simply having 6 consecutive days in which I didn’t have to think about school at all was simply wonderful.

Yet, even upon returning back the madness starts right up again! At 10 a.m. I was downtown at district headquarters talking with the district mathematics expert about potential diagnostic assessment that Rustum (my partner in crime in developing/running 6th grade math intervention next year) and I might want to use. In short, even the 5th grade level math on this proposed assessment would have been too difficult for many of our middle school kids, let alone our incoming 6th graders.

The sad truth of the matter is that for any diagnostic test to be useful, it’s going to have to be on basic, basic math (we’re talking 2nd –4th grade skills here), a reality that no bureaucrat seems willing to admit. And until we as a district (or at least as a school) are able to “call a spade, a spade”, we’re not really going be be giving our struggling kids an adequate chance of success.

My colleague summed it his thoughts nicely as we left shortly before noon: if our math intervention next year succeeds, it will be in spite of the district, rather than because of it.

Anyway, in other news, yes, that is a screenshot of my very own desktop, compiled by a free program I’ve been using since yesterday called Bumptop. It has transformed my desktop from the mindless clutter that it once was, to being a wonderfully beautiful (and surprisingly efficient) way to organize items on my desktop. I love the slideshow photos which rotate through my computers saved pictures! Awesome!