As I write this (Thanks, iPhone!), I’m riding in the car, enroute to Cape Cod, where I plan to spend the weekend reading and baby journaling, along with some thinking about the new shape of my life. When everyone goes back into the classroom on September 2nd (here in NYC anyway), I’ll be there in spirit. School or no school, there is something about Fall that inspires a renewal, a starting over, in a way that Spring never does.
Today, I returned to my old school to deliver some birthday cookies to a colleague and introduce Alice to the teachers. I heard a bit about the usual first day back drama and was glad to not be a part of it this year. But when two of my teachers shared their programs with me, I immediately offered to help them with planning because there are two things I miss already– planning and working with teachers (friends, really!). **
In the meantime, I’ve begun doing a bit of research on Special Ed in NYC for an article I want to submit to GothamSchools. I think it’ll be interesting to get a parents’-eye view of the system and use those experiences to think about ways that the DOE could better meet the needs of these parents and their kids.
A new school year also means new NYCWP programming! Hopefully there will be a technology retreat sometime this Fall, so stay tuned for more information!
** Mildly Melancholy– I’m totally serious about going to visit that museum, so let’s work it out, maybe combine it with a teacher-bloggy get-together!
I’m sitting with my newborn daughter, six weeks old today, as she sleeps off another feeding. This iPhone is the perfect new mommy gift because it allows me to stay connected, even when I’m otherwise occupied or pressed into duty. This morning, I’m scrolling Twitter and reading my regular round of teacher blogs. Everyone has planning on the brain, including me. Why me? After all, I’m not going back to work on September 2nd. This is a weird feeling for me. Planning is what I do. I’m good at it, even if the execution sometimes leaves much to be desired. This is the first time since I started Kindergarten that I haven’t had a “Back to School.” I’m not kidding… I’ve always been a student and/or a teacher.
So, what should I do with myself? For starters, I’m keeping up on my education news because I’d like to write an article or two for the new blog, GothamSchools. It’s taking me awhile to get back into the writing groove but I’ve been thinking about my sister’s experience with special education in NYC. My nephew goes to a private special ed school because my sister felt that he wasn’t getting adequate services. The State pays for much of his tuition thanks to a State law that allows parents to sue for educational services. What happens to kids whose parents don’t have access to the knowledge and resources required to do the same? Does this law provide any incentive for schools to improve the quality of services offered to special needs kids?
On another note, this same sister has a daughter entering kindergarten this year. I had the opportunity to observe her navigate the DOE channels of kindergarten enrollment and the Gifted&Talented screening process. Enlightening, to say the least…
These are just some of the things I have floating around in my mind as we approach another new school year. In the meantime, I’m keeping my finger on the pulse as best as I can!
It’s not that I have nothing to say. If anything, I have too much to say.
It goes without saying that my life these days is consumed by baby,baby, baby… she is growing by leaps and bounds. I’m struck by how noticeable and non-gradual her growth is. One day, her feet reach nowhere near the end of her stroller seat and the next, she takes up the full length of it. An outfit that was humongous on her last week fits almost perfectly this week.
My mind, though, is not entirely consumed by all things baby. I have lots of things floating around up there, like how I might offer my services as a policy analyst to a local politician, or what kinds of education issues I might want to write about for a certain new blog. I think about my husband’s job opportunities and hope that we’ll be able to move upstate sooner rather than later. (Anybody want to buy a cute little one-bedroom studio in a friendly building in the Riverdale section of The Bronx?)
In the meantime, I hang around here, waiting for my sister to come back from the cape with the kids, keeping myself occupied with my mommy friends (Hi, Sue! Hi, Edith! Hi, Freyja!), baking bread and muffins, and looking at the calendar which is heavily inked in for the end of the month and the month of September. Alice will be doing lots of car travel as we head to the FDR Museum in Hyde Park for family time with my mom, her baby naming in Albany, a wedding celebration in Greenfield, MA (with a side trip to Cooperstown!), and back to Albany for the High Holy Days at the end of September. In the meantime, I wait for this slow streak to pass, which is not a bad thing at all when I’ve got great company!
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GothamSchools is a project of The Open Planning Project and is a “news source and online community for teachers, parents, policy makers and journalists interested in learning about what works and what doesn’t in the nation’s largest school district.”
GothamSchools
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