Louisville Volleyball Weekend
Louisville 2024 Day 1
There’s more to the story than these pictures, but it’s a fairly succinct vision of the first 8 hours of the day…
We made it to a Buc-ee’s — one of L’s favorite places. Why? It’s a big gas station, nothing more. Still, she gets some kind of silly joy out of it, and they are relatively rare in our part of the country (none near us in Greenville), so we stopped.
Part of the reason we stopped was the charm of the visit; part of it was the passenger-side rear tire, which had a slow leak.
Which led to me spending the first couple of hours in Louisville getting it fixed…
The girls went undefeated again in pool play, so it was a successful day. Pictures on the camera, though — no computer about…
Is this crazy
There is no way I am posting tonight -- I prepared this last night because at the normal time I'd be getting something ready for this silly site, I'll be somewhere in the midst of this insanity...
Lessons and Blooms
"I need to work on my Polish," the Boy recently declared, so he and K have been working on Polish lessons again. He doesn't look enthusiastic all the time, but he is (still) willing.
Almost as lovely as his effort were the azaleas blooming this morning.
Still More Testing
The results of this test will pass into mysterious silence: the students would get more feedback about their writing from a random stranger on the street than they will from this test. Other than the practice they gain from writing yet another analytic piece about a text (which was likely painfully boring and irrelevant to them), this test is an utter waste of time.
Yet I admire these kids for the effort they are putting into a largely Sisyphean task, for even those who’d had their heads down at one point complete the test and appear to do their best. This shows a perseverance and maturity that I, in my increasingly cynical fifties, seem to lack. Were I taking this test, my temptation would be to submit a rebellious, snarky response: “We are completely sick of all this testing, and I for one refuse to participate in this charade.”
What would be the reaction of the evaluator? Would she nod in agreement, lowering her head a bit in shame at her admittedly-minimal role in the process? Would he grow indignant, frustrated that the student didn’t see the value of a test he regards so highly, angry at the student’s teacher who so obviously neglected to impress upon the student the critical nature of the test? In short, just how much faith do the creators and evaluators of these tests have in the tests themselves? It’s hard to imagine how they could see any value in today’s test that will be unevaluated and provide students with absolutely no feedback, so we’re all left wondering just why we did it. We all, teachers and students alike, develop the sense that test in general is just a tool to provide numbers to some group of bureaucrats so they can create for educators arbitrary comparisons and goals to provide these bureaucrats with a false sense of effort and accomplishment. We’ve recognized the problem, determined its scope, and created (or rather, ordered the creation of) a set of tests sure to solve the problem. And if they do not solve the problem, we can always create still more tests and metrics that ignore the actual issues but can serve as a balm for our consciences.
This all assumes that something will be done with the test. For all we know, the responses could simply be saved on some computer somewhere, completely forgotten soon enough and totally meaningless as a result.
Eclipse
I forgot to put pictures up from the eclipse yesterday. Our district had an e-learning day (?!?) and so only the teachers were at school.
Playful Monday
It used to be something we did fairly frequently in the spring: all four of us would go outside and do something together: swings, trampoline, badminton, or just a walk. I guess we all took it for granted, but soon enough, schedules shifted, kids grew up, calendars filled up, and these evening family times disappeared.
But we still have the net up from Easter; and we still have two kids who enjoy badminton. So all four of us were out playing, though never at the same time -- that schedule thing again.
First I took on the Boy. He's getting so much better, but he flubs some that should have been fairly easy. No pictures of that one.
Then K came out and played with the Boy. I snapped a couple of pictures, but not many -- not even one of K playing.
Then the Boy went inside while K and I played a bit. We're down to two working rackets, so options were limited.
Finally, the Girl returned home from getting crickets for her Australian Tree Frog -- I don't know that we have a single picture of her, but L has had her since eighth grade.
She plays with the Boy for a while, but then I suggest I take the Boy's part and the Boy take the camera.
And so I promptly have fun while making a bit of a fool of myself. L wins at everything -- it's time we face it.
K, for her part, was inside, studying.
When will the stars align again for such a day?
Conestee Sunday Afternoon
Sand
The Girl and the son of our dearest Polish friends -- two kids who always argued when younger -- played in a short sand volleyball tournament. L had just finished up a track meet, winning the high jump and placing second in the javelin, so she was a bit tired, I thought.
"No, I'm fine," she insisted.
Youth...
Scenes from a Walk
