Have a lot going on - will post after June 22nd.

The end of the school year is always bitter sweet.

The end is near - we get out on June 22nd. But, I have way too much to do before I can even think about summer break.

Currently proofreading research papers, proofread research papers will turn into must correct papers (College Prep page requirement was 2-5 pages; Honors page requirement was 5-7 pages) - I have 90 9th graders doing this assignment, correcting WW I quizzes, final projects in my local history class, and trying to get the rest of the common final entered into Scantron for Final Exam week. Oh, and at some point, I will need to get grades calculated and entered into the school system for report cards.

Throw into this lovely equation that I have 2-3 days to teach World War II to my 9th graders. So, I'm coming up with a cliff note version PowerPoint of how to teach World War II in 2 days.

It's just too much.

And, we are going to have budget cuts. Still no news about who has a job for next school year.

A rant - please ignore my mood! :-)

I was driving into school the other day listening to NPR (National Public Radio) and they had a commentary regarding testing. Get this, the federal gov't TESTS Head Start programs/kids! Head start kids are preschoolers folks! Before the age of five for goodness sake! What am I missing???? How can the gov't justify this??? They want to know how well their programs are doing so they figure if they test the little tikes, they will get an idea of how well the kids are learning. These are LITTLE kids folks . . . is it really necessary for them to be tested so young???

Read/listen to it here.

Maybe I'm in a negative mood right now since we just finished MCAS this week (the English Language Arts portion - the rest is taken the end of May and beginning of June). I'm annoyed at this standardized test that my students need to take in order to graduate from high school. I don't believe a test is the answer to all the problems with public education. The politicians seem to think it's the best answer but they don't know/understand what we deal with every single day in our classrooms. If a student receives an A in my World History class, the state basically says, "Yeah, that's fine BUT they need to receive a specific score on OUR test to determine if they will graduate from high school???" So, our opinion doesn't count and our grades don't count for anything. And, they wonder why teachers are not respected - it's because THEY don't respect us (gov't, politicians, etc.). I'm annoyed that for three days, my school was on three hour delay (9th, 11th, and 12th graders came in three hours late) and I lost a ton of curriculum hours from my teaching for a test that only 10th graders have to take. Last, I'm annoyed that I will get stuck proctoring all the MCAS exams and that there are teachers in the building that don't have to proctor ONE test!

Where are all the tests leading? I teach to a test now. I hate it. I have a lot of students have similar learning styles like me - I don't test well. Is life nothing but a standardized test????
According to the state of MA, life is like a standardized test - you never know what ya might get (sorry for the Forrest Gump reference).

It's cold here in New England

We are currently experiencing a cold spell here in New England. We went from 70 degree weather in January to 15 degree weather! Crazy stuff!

Good news is that my classroom in the modular is nice and toasty! Why? Because I can jack up the heat . . . that's why! :-)

Bad news is that I control the thermostat for my classroom and the classroom across the hallway from me. The poor guy across the hallway . . . .he's got the windows opened and is sweating his $%&$#@ off! Oops . . . .

Today was a long key day. The students are coming off of a four day weekend so they were pretty calm for the most part. We start midterm exams next week so I'm prepping them for exams and trying to make a one last chance at teaching curriculum that needs to be taught - thank you MA Curriculum Frameworks! :-) 1st rule - cram as much information down their throats as humanly possible the week before exams. They will hate you with a stormy passion! 2nd rule - scare them and freak them out about the exam (Ex: tell them the exam is over 40 pages and keep a straight face!).

I'm so evil . . . . . I adore freshman . . . . you can torture them to the fullest extreme and truly get away with it. There is a place in hell for me. You know that, right?????

Is it February break yet????????