Blogs on Education Reform

I've always said, "I'll leave when the website is done, or the educational system is fixed," which made my colleagues giggle. Anyone who's ever worked on a big website like edutopia.org knows there's always something to do, just as anyone who's ever worked on education reform thinks Sisyphus is a big baby who should stop whining and get back to work. Over the years, GLEF has published projects in every conceivable medium, but there is one factor that never changed, the thread that binds all of our efforts, the not-so-secret sauce that makes all of our work meaningful.

I'm not just a college dropout. I chose to leave school in fifth grade to become an unschooler -- the self-directed form of homeschooler. While my peers sat in class during middle and high school, I found mentors, organized collaborative learning groups, took college courses, lived in France, helped build a library and generally directed my own education.

Brenda Overturf is a member of the International Reading Association's Board of Directors. You can reach her at boverturf[AT]reading[DOT]org.

In this series of three posts, we aim to provide an overview of the ELA Common Core State Standards (ELA CCSS) to inform educators, parents, and community members about basic concepts and implementation.

We continue our week long Virtual Deeper Learning Community of Practice where we hope to engage the Edutopia and larger education community in an online dialogue about teacher practice for deeper learning. We are exploring the following question from multiple perspectives -- exemplary practices, policy, professional development and coaching teachers towards deeper learning.