Welcome Back!

I took a somewhat-intentional week off from blogging last week. I say "somewhat" because I actually did intend to write for four days last week; I outlined topics, thought about them, etc. Just couldn't bring myself to write.

Education is depressing, sometimes, and it is hard to continue to be the bearer of bad news. This past week, President Obama announced exactly how waivers would be granted for NCLB, Georgia held a podcast on the Common Core Standards, and the Senate proposed a bill that would freeze K-12 funding. These are not exactly thrilling events, and it is hard to immerse myself in them every day. They also don't really indicate any hopeful change in public education, and I find that in order to keep hope alive, I need to back away from the political and financial bickering that has less to do with improving education and more to do with ego.

HoneyFern School became official this week; we are now an accredited, specially zoned private school. This is news worth sharing. This week we are extracting fruit DNA and constructing edible cells; we are also going to see a performance of Taming of the Shrew at The Shakespeare Tavern, and I also scored tickets to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Science continues to be the most challenging (and satisfying) of instructional design for me, and I have been looking for professional development opportunities for both that subject and foreign language instruction.

There was a delicious soup this week (broccoli-cheese and homemade bread!),



and great conversations about bullying and other topics in the news. HoneyFern is moving forward, with or without the rest of the education establishment, and I am glad of it. If I have to keep one foot in the muck and mire of public ed as a professional, so be it. I just know that I can come back to the kids here and roll around in the fact that we have carved out a little oasis in the desert of quality education.