The Wheels are Turning

Just a note, it's been a looong day, so coherent language might be beyond my reach tonight.

Superintendent Breakfast....very nice! One of the administrators remembered me and asked me about my prize vacation that I won last year. Thankfully, the district seems to be ahead of the game-although the students = dollar signs continually bugs me. She also clearly explained a lot of the discrepancies among charter, public and private school funding. We live in a state that does not value public education at the government level, which trickles down to parents, who do not trust the school systems to educate children properly. School systems are locked in a funding battle based on enrollment and test scores and not based on offering a decent overall education. I heard a woman on NPR or some station explained how she lived overseas and was educated for three years in Japan or China. They had to learn three foreign languages, science, math, reading-everything. It was rigorous and she said she worked her tail off. When she returned to school in the States, she was literally three grade levels AHEAD of the public school students. What the heck are we doing?

Okay, tangent.

Anyway, I took a basic web design class tonight for school. I went in expecting a long, three hour class of unexciting material. Instead, we actually created a usable website-nothing fancy, I leave that to my friends Diana, Cindy and the pros. But we used Google to make a decent website.

Sitting next to another music teacher colleague, we passed some ideas back and forth on different things we were doing. I wanted to create a website that addresses lesson planning and musical activities for special needs students. She talked about some common acquaintances who might be interested in workshops and piloting some kind of group classes. My wheels were working, but I couldn't focus on a direction for it. Instead, I created a website related to my music classes at school.

But I think the need is out there for more instruction for special education students. My brain is too tired to formulate ideas, but the more I discussed things out loud, the more I could envision a plan.

Other than that, I missed Dancing with the Stars. Why I watch that, I don't know, but it is fun.

The boys are still awake at 8:56pm. Should be a fun morning of rise and shine.

I am going to put some feet up, turn on Slumdog Millionaire and fall asleep mid-movie.