What is wrong with me?

My tummy hurts. It's midnight. I'm afraid to got to sleep. Afraid I'll awaken spewing like a volcano. Anyway . . .

Last Thursday and Friday I had the chance to go to the Illinois Reading Conference in Springfield. Eye-opening and overwhelming. Things I learned:

-Men do not teach reading. At least they don't go to conferences about reading.

-Mad teachers have no problem calling fire marshals. The popular speakers' rooms filled up quickly to overflowing. And then men wielding badges ran those sitting along the edges and down the aisle out.

-Don't look a salesman in the eye if you don't want to be cornered.

-Magic key in the magic lock chances to win stuff is just one more opportunity for the world to call you a LOSER!

OK. Maybe in a future blog I'll compare and contrast all the different reading stuff we're expected to teach/test now.

However, to end, the best line of the day was a direct slam against No Child Left Behind, which has some other name now, and the subsequent Response to Intervention that is a very complicated method of tracking/"helping" kids that deals with lots and lots of tests. It goes like this: Just because you keep weighing the pig doesn't mean he gains weight.

And there you have it, folks. Just because you keep weighing the pig doesn't mean he gains weight.