The Dreaded 13.

Triskaidekaphobia is a real thing.  I do not have this condition (fear of the number 13).  In contrast, I embrace and celebrate this dreaded number.  There are enough legitimate things in the world to be afraid of, why waste time with something that has only the power you give it?

So, on to the topic at hand:

What did I learn today?

-I learned that I can use baseball cards (of which I have plenty) to teach literacy.

-I learned that the possibilities for crossover between me and language arts are endless.

-I learned that my art project is evolving into something I am quite happy with.

-I learned that I can scoop articles and build a nice portfolio of web resources using scoop.it

-I learned that canvas is something useable IF I can get approval to get my kiddos a google account.  If not, I always have coursesites.

-I am not as terrified today of teaching in the fall as I was yesterday, but that is subject to change.

-Maybe I am over-thinking the whole formative assessment thing.  Perhaps it is simply a matter of establishing a baseline.  I think going down to 7th grade will make that process more fluid.  My last bunch of 7th graders required a lot of baseline support as I recall....and there are numerous similarities between this group and those.  Of course, I was in a much darker and confused place then as opposed to now.  Far too much brain fog and belief in my own invincibility in those days. 

-I learned that the arguments that people put forth against common core is probably some of the best evidence out there for EXACTLY why we need common core.