School, School, School

Dallin and Mandy have now been in school for almost two weeks.  They were both so excited to start school this year.  Seriously, they woke up the morning of first day of school, got dressed, brushed their hair, and put their backpacks on all before 7:05 a.m.  The first bell for school doesn’t ring until 8:15.  I’m telling you – they were excited!

And I was excited for them!  Dallin is in 3rd grade this year and has a very sweet teacher named Ms. Rhoden.

She seems very down to earth and kind, just the kind of teacher Dallin needs.  So far, he has had homework every night (including on the first day of school), but he has always been able to complete it in about 30 minutes, which I think is very reasonable for homework at his age.  I hope it continues that way for the rest of the year!

I really like Mandy’s teacher, Ms. Crane.

I went to the parent’s night last night and she is so positive and realistic in her expectations for the kids.  I have a feeling Mandy is going to have a fantastic year!!  Mandy has told me she has already made lots of friends.   Because for her, friends are by far the most important part of school.

At the parent’s night, they explained that Florida has now adopted a new set of education standards called the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards.  Apparently these standards have been developed with the help of other states and now 40 states have adopted them and others are expected to as well.  Supposedly this will mean that if you were to move from one state to another, you can expect the same core standards of education to be taught at each grade level.  This also means that they will be phasing out the FCAT and some other supposedly better test will be used, the same test that will be used in the other states that have adopted these standards.  These new standards are supposed to place a greater emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).  Once Mandy reaches high school age, ALL students will be required to take Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics.  I’m interested to see how that plays out!