Newfangled Dad

Warning! Warning! Potty training story in the first section! TMI ahead. (But it's so darn cute!) If you're a parent, you know there is no such thing as bathroom time to yourself. The kids are either waiting for you outside the door. Or pounding on the door. Or in the bathroom with you. In this case, Leda was in the room and Cole was in the hall outside. He'd just thrown Cookie Monster at me and I gave him the usual speech: Daddy will be done in a second. YOU  could go sit on your potty, too. Usually, I get a dead stare or laughter. Today, however, Cole raced to his room and grabbed his plastic chair and dragged it to the living room. When I finished, I expected to see him putting his cars inside. To my surprise, he was actually sitting--fully clothed, sure, but I'll take it! "Oh wow, good job, buddy! That was exactly right! Thank you! Awesome! Would you like to sit on it a little longer?" "No." (Cole grabs potty and quickly takes it back to h...

It's the Mystery of the Missing Furniture! Someone stole our patio furniture. It's a weird, long story that I'll condense this way: A day or two ago I thought it was odd that all 4 of our heavy, wrought iron patio chairs were gone. Ok, let me clarify, they're not "ours" but are in the common sideyard of the building for everyone to use. But they belong to our neighbors who moved out when they got married. So we assumed they'd come to take them back. Very odd that they'd want to take back their patio chairs in the middle of winter, but whatever. Well, yesterday, the matching table is gone, too. I mean, this stuff is heavy enough that I don't think I could carry more than one chair at a time and I certainly don't think your average person could lift the table without help. Apparently there has been a wave of patio furniture crime in our neighborhood...some people even take to chaining it down/together a la sidewalk cafe. The married coupl...

The other day I promised to bring my insights to the topic of new standards for nonfiction in the English classroom as a tool to improve test scores. But, forgive me, I'm going to try to get wider...though not too wide, hopefully. I'm going to use this article on vocabulary being linked to academic (and life) success as my jumping off point, but you don't need to read it to appreciate the bigger picture. The topic is a big one, but let me just give my take via what I know best. Testing. Over the years, I've been a Team Leader and test scorer for two different test scoring companies. Both with very different approaches to proficiency scoring. One very industrial in their approach to measurement. One more relaxed. But, of course, it comes down to the states and what they want/require. For those not familiar with how the process works, there are companies that specialize in educational measurement and contract with individual states to essentially grade the written ...

(This post jumps off from a continuing discussion PBS NewsHour is having about Women in Science .) I'm not worried about my daughter. Women have gotten the message. Men have gotten the message. By and large, what we're dealing with sexism-wise are the stragglers. It's the same for racism. It's the same for homophobia. It's not to say the conversation about these things is over. Or that they no longer exist.  Where we're at now, however, is a place where we've all agreed pretty much that discrimination is a bad thing. So the question then--when talking about something like gender & education--is why things aren't balanced. And sometimes the answer is just "it is."  If there's not currently a lot of women in, say, computer science...it may not be because they lack the opportunity, the ability, or the knowing it's an option. Sometimes these days it's just "they don't wanna."  My daughter will certainly...