I was walking down Church Street the other day and there was this dad
walking hand-in-hand with a little blonde girl who looked about four.

Girl: Daddy, when we get to the airport, is it going to be loud?

Dad: Well, I don't know... It'll be pretty loud. Not too bad,
though, but yeah, it'll be loud.

Girl: Can you cover my ears if it's loud?

Dad: Yeah. I'll cover your ears.

So I took the month of October off because I was pretty unhappy, but I'm feeling better now. I talked to a lot of people, and just knowing I'm supported makes such a difference.

From a paper I'm currently writing for S109: Thinking Like an Educator:

Specifically, we are focusing on the fifth grade teachers’ units around the book Felita. In regards to this book, I believe a more uniform curriculum is needed across the school and the district, but not a scripted literacy curriculum. This literacy curriculum will be more on the whole language end of the spectrum, but will include elements from the phonics camp. In addition, the literacy components will be fundamentally linked to skills like conflict-resolution, socialization, community-building, and reflection—the Social Awareness component. Together, the literacy and social awareness elements will constitute our proposed program, Behavior and Literacy Learning Skills (BALLS).
First, on the a broad level, BALLS will address the issue of teachers all teaching Felita in different ways, which exacerbates the problem of poor student literacy. BALLS will implement a routine, school-wide system of literacy instruction that will be learner-focused and based on ongoing formative assessment. Like the Balanced Literacy program created by District 2 in New York City, the BALLS curriculum will have a set of guiding principles but will allow teachers the autonomy to decide how to organize lessons.

I hate that class so much.