“A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever.” ― Shigeru Miyamoto

We have been delaying this for a while now.Blogging.We have talked late at night, over coffee, during meals, in the car, circling around the same question - "But what would our blog be about?"Here are some of the ideas in the reject bin:

1. "Our thoughts on education."

2. Post-it notes.

3. Yelling about testing.

4. "Funny stories"

None resonated, for obvious reasons. But we did want some guiding principal to help push us forward. Eventually, we decided to design the page, and it was here, in the nuts and bolts of choosing images and colors and titles, that we found what we wanted to add to the interweb's discussion: how all of the big ideas and guiding philosophies and reform movements will always boil down to the smallest decisions we make in our classrooms. How many of my lessons/units have ended in chaotic disaster because I failed to think about the tiny details that would make the whole thing work?

Big Idea: Common Core State Standards. Tiny Detail: How will the kids write about their reading so we can begin to assess and teach into what they know? (That's right, Post-its! :) - Blog post to follow.)

Big Idea: Differentiation. Tiny Detail: How will I make my teaching visible to my small groups so that they can see a model and be more engaged? (Conferring Toolkits - Blog post to follow.)

So. We would like to pluck some of the huge concepts floating around out there in education and batten them down to sharpies, post its, steps and lessons. We would like to help make the vague feel concrete; the out-of-reach more doable.

We think that the title of this blog fits our intention. To indent our writing is a little thing, one click of a tab button. But it does big work. It shifts our focus, it signals a change, it allows for pause and reflection.

Let's get started.