Just a short post today because it is Sunday night and I have plenty to do and think about for this week. I have been meaning, for the past two days, to write about the professional development that I attended on Friday afternoon. At my school, the students have a half day every Friday so that the teacher can attend all manner of meetings and such. This not a bad thing, theoretically, and there have certainly been valuble experiences in those afternoons. A few weeks ago, I attended a Friday afternoon session on differentiated instruction that was amazing. The presenter was a 30-year-old, phD-possessing, educational fountain of information that rocked my world-no joke. I left the session feeling energized and inspired to taylor my instruction so that each child could reach his or her potential. I have been looking for ways to remove myself from the front of the classroom and work with my students in a meaningful, hands-on way, and after that particular meeting, I felt like my desires were right on with the true meaning of education.

With all of this still banging around my head on Friday afternoon, imagine my sadness at spending three hours discussing how to teach students how to take standardized tests. And those three hours are nothing compared to what's to come. I haven't looked in my test-prep folder yet, but the word on the street is that the "Twelve Days of Terra Nova" mean that the students and I are expected to spend more than 2 weeks preparing for these tests, for something like 5 hours a day. So much for reducing the amount of teacher-directed instruction. I suppose that, as a Catholic school teacher, I should be glad that until now, the test-talk has been kept to a minimum. However, I am far from convinced that these next few weeks will be anything but an unfortunate waste of everyone's time. Less than three weeks until spring break.

To end on a more positive note, I am beginning a new spelling program this week called Words Their Way, which I have heard great things about. The students are broken up into three groups based on spelling ability, and each week that groups get a different set of words to sort and manipulate. Cutting out all of the slips of paper has been a bit tedious, but I am looking forward to adding a new facet to the individualized (in this case, small-group) instruction that I love so much.