Before moving to Georgia, the back-to-school issue that constantly stuck in my craw was dry-erase markers, of all things. Yes. Every child was required to bring a 4-pack of dry-erase markers as part of their supplies, at the kids' old school.

It's back-to-school time for not just public school students in the U.S., but for many (if not most) homeschooled students as well. Today, I read a hundred or so back-to-school blog entries by homeschooling parents to get a sense of what it's like to "send" your kids back to homeschool. What I discovered: Back-to-school time is as anxiety-ridden for many homeschooling parents as it is for parents of public school students. AngiesAngels is second-guessing her decision to homeschool this year:

Which would you choose: a modest salary and with modest regular pay raises and a guaranteed position as long as you weren't negligent at your job, or a higher salary and bigger raises in an environment where the people you supervised underwent high-stakes tests every year--and where you underwent annual evaluation (to determine whether you get a raise, retain your job, or are fired) based in part on their performance on the test?

Do you remember what books you had to read in high school? I thought about this a few years ago when some of my friends and I were comparing reading notes. I came up with what I think is a pretty standard high school reading list. Brave New World, Oedipus Rex, Death of a Salesman, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Catcher in the Rye. Shakespeare was represented by Romeo and Juliet and MacBeth. I don't think I enjoyed reading a single one of them. We didn't have a conversation about them in class. No, we sat there with our literary scapels and dissected them to bits leaving no likeable parts. We didn't read books in school - we killed them.

The back-to-school adjustment always takes me a little by surprise each August. I think, with hope, that we might slide back in to our normal school routine a little more easily than we did the year before. But then reality hits.

Late last month I looked at presumptive Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain's education plan and found it lacking. Now it's time to examine the education plan of his presumptive opponent, Democratic Senator Barack Obama. As always, I encourage you to read the plan yourself; you can see an outline of Obama's plan and download the full versions of his K-12 education and college affordability plans.

My kids have been back at school for a full week, now, but most of the country is still enjoying summer break. This is for those of you just starting to think about preparation for the back-to-school routine.

In my third grade class I was math stupid. After I got sprung after three months from the machinations of my second grade teacher, I was placed in a regular classroom. I went from practicing writing my name and coloring number shapes to being expected to tell time and multiply.

This weekend, I attended a dynamic conference at MIT for developers, educators and users working with the Scratch programming language. Scratch allows novices to program using graphical blocks that snap together to create interactive stories, games and animations. I decided to write my blogpost in Scratch. Click on the image below to watch it, then hurry on back!

Have you seen presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain's education plan? McCain presented his plan in a speech to the NAACP last week. What's most interesting to me about the plan is that it combines federal and very local oversight of schools--and in so doing presents a number of conundrums and possibilities.

I couldn't make it to BlogHer this year because I immersed in an interactive journalism camp. The camp's participants produced an online multimedia site with story packages that included text, video, photos and interactive graphics that they conceived and coded. Although they were new to journalism, their stories were full of substance. They pressed public officials on what they were doing to reduce our town's carbon footprint. They quizzed a scientist on the ethics of animal testing. Coverage of a robotics competition, dual profiles of a well-known Hollywood actor and a aspiring comic book artist, and a conversation about the future of journalism rounded out the story lineup.These 16 ace reporters are rising 8th graders who were new to both journalism and programming. You can see what they produced after five days of training and assistance from their college student mentors, five of their teachers, three professors and three volunteers. 

Judi Sohn, the mother of a girl whose special needs she claims were not being met by her daughter's school, reports that the school has used her blog postings against her in legal proceedings. Was Sohn treated fairly? We don't really have enough evidence to say, but Sohn's case is a fascinating one. I'm going to quote at length from Sohn's post as a way of summarizing her story: