Today’s Blogging Challenge: Share a single snapshot of your day. It can be an image, video or any form of multimedia!
Over 20 years ago, I had the amazing experience to visit the Alex Haley farm in Tennessee AND hear Maya Angelou speak. AH-MAH-ZING!
During our time with her she would break up her spoken word with a certain line….She’d sing “When it looked like the sun wasn’t gonna shine anymore…God put a rainbow in the clouds.” I LOVE that line! It frequently pops up when I’m struggling with something…and that popped up for me today.
There’s no secret about my growing frustration with the state of standardized tests in my state. Our children have taken 3 different tests in the past three years. Today I read 15 minutes of directions…..FIFTEEN MINUTES! And by the time I was done – I almost didn’t have a clue of the expectations, myself. As I walked around the room providing encouragement to my kids (I taught them last year), I grew increasingly frustrated for them. Why do we punish our children like this? Why do we punish our teachers like this? Why is it ok to wait until October to even determine what standardized test they will take….and not even fully develop it until months after that? Why do we spend months saying, “You’ll need this for the test….you better focus or you won’t pass the test….the test, the test, the TEST! And then we get frustrated when they look at us in wonder when we tell them that there’s work after the test. And for what? Because when they grow up they’re going to be perpetual test takers? Oh wait! No, they will all become test writers!
After that morning….I was definitely feeling the clouds…and out of nowhere….a rainbow appeared!
I’ve been talking to our Math/Science Coordinator about starting coding clubs for teachers and students. Dr. De Ridder-Vignone is interested in starting some all girls coding clubs. Rainbow!
Of course we still have to work out the details…but it makes me hopeful. And we all could use a little “rainbow” right now.
Until the next time,
