I had hoped to have some words on a page by the end of this week, but that has not happened. My original plan had been a chapter a month. January was dedicated to the proposal. February to Chapter 2 (which I really finished quite early). March was supposed to be Chapter 4, but IRB stuff shifted me to working on Chapter 1. I’m hoping I can get a draft of Chapter one by the end of next week, but we’ll see. I can’t work on it tonight because I have to get up at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow to drive North to give a workshop (on blogging, of course). I will have Sunday to work on it and every night next week, but I hate feeling behind like this. I have to check with my institution, but I think I officially have until December. If I don’t, I’m going to file an extension because I just don’t want that pressure.

I’ve been constructing a letter in my head to the superintendent of schools. I want to request that all teachers put their assignments on the web. I’m even going to volunteer to teach them, set up a blog or something. I’m tired of the paper shuffle. Not only would it help students because they could just look the assignment up at home (obvioulsy, there could be a paper version too), but it could potentially get parents more involved. Instead of just asking, “Have you done your homework?” you can ask “Did you read Chapter 3 in your history book?” If they could even put a little bit about what happened in class that day, instead of asking “How was your day?” we could ask “How was the spelling test?” I know, kids should be telling us this stuff, but the reality is they don’t. I know there may be access problems, but that shouldn’t entirely prevent them from doing this.

My other cantankerous issues are unbloggable for now. I’ll update later in the day.