Life – Page 3 – Embrace the Absurd

Feeling All The Feels In Philly

My suitcase is unpacked. The second load of laundry is in the washer. It’s time to reflect on my future and my five days in Philadelphia.

All Things Considered…In Philadelphia

Once again I find myself at a professional crossroads, and once again that has led me to Philadelphia.

It Was Always In The Cards

The first day of spring. Easter. Opening Day!

All full of hope and the promise of renewal and rebirth.

Reflecting on Opening Day’s past, however, reveals that my future was there, staring me in the face all along.

Striving for Imperfection

“The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise. Alden Nowlan”

We appear to be adolescents – still learning how to deal with imperfection.

Family Ties

There are a few things I miss since stepping away from working full-time, but so many more that I don’t miss at all. And then there are my neckties.

Learning Saved. Learning Lost.

I thought that box of old class notes in my basement was a testament to all I had learned. But sifting through it got me thinking about learning loss. Could it be that understanding learning loss is even more complicated than understanding how students learn in the first place?

Let’s Do Lunch

Of the many, many things that I learned from Rich Hill, first at Advanced Systems and later at the Center for Assessment, the most important may have been this: Take a break for lunch.

The Content of Their Character

We have reached the point where MLK Day may be the least controversial of all of the federal holidays. I wouldn’t have predicted that back in 1981, and I’ll take it as a positive sign. Even if there is still much more work to be done.

The Year Is The Only Thing That’s New

It’s a new year and we have resolved to make it a good one. But what is really “new” about the new year, and what can we learn from the New Year’s Resolution process to make better use of large-scale assessment results.

The First Thanksgiving – Myths & “Myths”

For years, the story of the “First Thanksgiving” was used to support a particular narrative. Reframing American history, however, doesn’t mean that there are not important lessons to be learned from the simple story of that gathering in the fall of 1621.