Skip to main content

Another Year

I've been trying to write a post for the past week or so, but life
kept getting into the way... it has a habit of doing that.

Just before school started, I didn't really go in and set things up. I
did for a few hours, but honestly, I had bigger things to do. Besides,
planning curriculum at the local coffee shop is waaaaayyy better than
sitting in a stuff classroom. The chairs are no where near as comfy
and the coffee shop does not have annoying "protect us from the big
bad world" internet filter. If someone recommends a site, I can
actually see it in all it's glory. Sadly, I can't share it with my
classroom... but I can use the ideas. Plus, I had family over, two
kids and a ton of things on my to-do list that I procrastinated all
summer long.

Also, if I was at school, I knew I would not be able to resist looking
at my class rosters and having a freak out. Freak one would be the
deminishing number of students in my AP classes. I was told that due
to the lack of teachers this year, I could not have a class of less
than 25. Too many in regular english - unfair to that teacher
(although I seem to be the only who cares about that), crowded
conditions and these are seniors darn it! We cannot do anything to
risk not being able to drag them across the graduation stage. The
second freak out would be due to one class period wherein not one
single student has EVER passed the reading or writing WASL. Never. Not
even in 4th grade. AND all but six have discipline numbers that are
higher than my age. The six that don't? All on IEPs. Every bad actor
in that year somehow ended up in that class. All of them.

Eventually, I convinced the administration that it was in their best
interest to remove some students from that class. I'm not sure if it
was the crying or threatening to walk out in the middle of class...
but it happened. My AP12 class is up to 19 and AP11 is still above 25.
The counselors thankfully convinced the administration to keep the
AP12 class.

The first day of class came and went. On class is virtually silent. I
can hear buttons on cell phones being pushed kind of silent. It's a
little creepy, but easy to manage. Especially nice since it's 33
students and they're packed in like sardines. The others were pretty
ho-hum. I've only had to confiscate one cell phone - and really it was
for show more than anything else. Oh, yes.. I have one student who may
kill me. We'll call him the 7-fingered boy. 7-finger boy is so angry
it eminates from him in waves, like heat waves off the pavement. He
seems perfectly nice, but it's not in a good way.

At last the weekend has come and I can finally hit the grocery
store... mmm... food not from a can.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“They Don’t Get It”

I hear that a lot these days. It used to be mostly from various teens trying to negotiate the drama unfolding in their lives as they wandered into that no-man’s land between adult and child. These days it’s from adults trying to navigate the education scene these days. So many people talking and no one listening. The other day I was reading a post by a blogger I’ve been following for several years. Before there was such a thing as “blogging.” We all know spring is IEP review season. This blogger wrote about his daughter’s. Among the various elements, there was the discussion about the state assessment tests. She did not pass. There was discussion about what this means… and why said student needed to pass this test. Would she be taking a modified test? While reading, all I could think about was what would happen to that child as she entered middle school and high school. A history of not passing the assessment test vs. teachers who will now be evaluated on how many students pass t...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Cruelest Month

I know T.S. Eliot favored April as the most cruel, but we teachers know that May is… even more so these days. Most importantly, it is the final testing month. National ‘assessments, state ‘assessments’, district ‘assessments’, school ‘assessments’… on and on. It’s impossible to actually get anything done. Toss in graduation activities, planning for the upcoming year and the 2011 bonus, lay-offs and transfers, and you have to wonder if it wouldn’t be better to save money by simply shutting down school entirely except for a few test proctors. Meanwhile, there seems an air of hopelessness permeating the education world. Plans to lay-off thousands are coming to fruition. Schools are being closed, despite protests. Charters are increasing where they can whether they should not. Unions have lost a lot ground and teachers are trying to decide if it’s even worth it any more to continue talking about education . ( not that I blame anyone for that, we all have lives to live ) For myself, I...
Post a Comment
Read more

Campaign Promises

While purusing the Sunday paper, I came across an article describing some local candidate forum held over the weekend. Apprently they either weren't able to say a lot or what they said was pretty boring because the article was skimpy on specifics. What caught my eye was a position of Randy Dutton. He wants "higher standards for teachers." My interest was piqued... what kind of standards? In looking at his website, apparently those standards will be raised by carrying a gun to school, finally; "full days of school"-whatever that means - personally I'd love to put in business hours. No more 5 am wake ups; increasing the number of k-8 schools - because those kindergartners don't swear enough; sending disruptive students to placed like Habit for Humanity - babysitting is what people volunteer for; and teaching more American History- too bad that with all the testing, no one ever gets past the Civil War... I'm not sure how any of these apply to teachers, ...
Post a Comment
Read more