Me and Julio out in the schoolyard

This is the view from the second floor at my middle school. I took a lunch break in my coworker, Patrice's room, and before biting into my super yummy turkey and lean cheddar cheese on whole wheat, I stopped to snap this picture. It was a glorious warm day in the city today, and the kids were in pretty good moods. I felt like I was in tunnel vision, working hard with a few individual students, trying to get them to realize that taking notes does not actually mean writing in full sentence paragraphs, as well as the importance of reading the question twice when you don't understand. At some points, I just had to lift my eyes to the sky and pray for these children. They will get what they get on this screwed up ELA test next week, and then they may or may not have to go to summer school, and if they pass that it determines if they are promoted to the next grade. Perhaps too many students won't improve their scores, which results in less money for the school, leading to only being able to employ me part time for another year, meaning the kids get less intervention, less one-on-one attention and ultimately, have a harder time improving next year. Don't you just LOVE No Child Left Behind? Yay accountability.

This should not detract from the beautiful, simple picture of play above. Thank goodness for moments like these in my day. It wasn't just kids enjoying the mid-winter spring weather. Even on my way home, I noticed lots of bikers and joggers whizzing past on my walk home along the river. Heck, I even noticed the pigeons cooing outside our party porch this morning during my incredibly healthy multigrain English muffin! Here's for hoping for another bright day tomorrow!