No Unnecessary Testing

For investing our time
Into minds that are already on overload
Instead let’s decode
Let’s start teaching to learn
Instead of teaching to test
Where the rest of the information
Is lost in translation
Somewhere between science and math
We forgot about poetry and dance
That is actually a stimulant
To prevent and circumvent
A student who is discontent
With their own performance
Because a test told them so
That they have no achievement effort or growth
Let’s try using assessment that’s authentic
Move past the standard
Of the standard deviation
Of the bell curve that prevails
Whether a student passes or fails
Let’s push them all to the left side
Of the curve and their brain
Drop the acronyms
That tear us limb for limb
These exams have been tried and acquitted
While the rest of us have been committed
To the asylum for grades admitted and resubmitted
Let’s break the chains that bind us
And for a minute try to find us
Within this process that is called testing
The entire person to begin assessing…

… Cause the brain gets tired sometimes.

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Wednesday, October 19, 2011 Posted in | , , | 1 Comments »


I cannot hear you
I cannot see you
This darkness is deafening and sentencing me to a life of silent obscurity
Where my only security is in my fingertips
That is the point in which the world enters.
My sensory is etched into my memory
Because for me, only my hands define space and time.
My lifeline is only as far as my arm can reach.
My entire world is night, there are no stars, no moon
Not even a city light.
I don’t take joy in listening to city life
Since I don’t know what a car sounds like.
As I lay in bed I don’t know if I’m asleep or awake
And I don’t know when the pigeons wake.
Though my sight and hearing are hit or miss,
I’ve always been more of an optimist.
When my ears that can’t hear any my eyes that have no sight
Those senses have been slighted
But my other three have been heightened and I’ve been enlightened.
I may not know this from a dresser or a desk,
But I could never mistake the beat in my chest
As every 8-count pierces my ear and makes my heart rip pound, opening my ribcage.
My hands have been more places than most people see in a lifetime.
Have you ever traced a face and felt the lines that make a smile?
You can feel every bit of joy that they let you steal some of it.
The heart has no eyes, it cannot hear,
It only knows the tenderness of another’s touch.
I may not know much,
But I know that my soul has felt that much
And so much more.  

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Tuesday, October 18, 2011 Posted in | , , | 0 Comments »

you said loving me is like inhaling oxygen, its essential to the bones in your body... well watch out baby because I'm about to leave you breathless... Even if you never see me when you're sleeping i'm always watching over you like the moon in the sky when it collides with the sun on the rise on the horizon. I am always by your side as the summer wind blows and carries a heavy weight of summer rain. I will carry your weight on my shoulders whenever you need me to hold you... I promise to be the fire that fuels the desires of your innermost self, and hear you whenever you call for help, even across the mountains and valleys that span your chest and back I will risk my heart so that we can bridge our bodies and connect the societies of our ancestors.

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Wednesday, October 12, 2011 Posted in | , , , , , | 0 Comments »