A "NEW" year of more of the same.....

Each and every year, prior to my retirement this Spring, I remember always looking forward to the new school year.  I remember saying that the Summer in which I did not look forward to the Fall and the new year would probably indicate I was done. While this Summer I knew I was not returning to the daily function of school, I nonetheless was still excited. Maybe excited is not the correct word, I was more hopeful.  More hopeful that some of the early adoption /"underground" educational issues would start to really pay off.  Issues like fewer days of testing pointless facts, increased awareness by principals of the critical job they play in establishing a positive school culture, of increased technology use by students in tech savvy classrooms, and teachers owning their own professional development needs rather than spending two days prior to school in large body "sit&get" training. Sadly, in visiting schools and talking with teacher colleagues this year did not start out as I would hope. The tests are still scheduled for too many days with inadequate feedback fo teachers, principals still read from lists of top down policy, technology is still not much more than a some computers (or chromebooks - which are no different) in classrooms, and teachers had to sit through another round of sit&gets that will ultimately only add more notebooks gathering dust on their shelves.