April 1: The moment of reckoning has arrived. All week, the Georgia High School Graduation Tests in Math, Science, Social Studies and Language Arts are being given. The scores will determine whether the school makes AYP. If it does not, and it hasn't yet, all the teachers will supposedly be fired and have to re-apply for their jobs. I think that's untrue, however, because the test scores will come in AFTER the teachers have signed next year's contract---or not. It's funny, you look on the job listings for our entire county, and the list of openings is as long as my arm, single-spaced. You look at the next county, Richmond Hill or Effingham, and you might see three openings, total, for all the high schools and middle schools. I guess you can figure out why it's hard to keep the help in our district, while teachers in the other counties hang on for dear life and never leave or retire.
April 3: The front page story is headlined "Chatham Schools Shake-Up" and goes on to say that the Supt. "eliminates six top administrative positions over lack of academic progress." Six BOE administrators now have to re-apply for some newly redefined positions. I truly believe that this action is primarily for the public drama and a few months from now the same people will be in place doing almost the same tasks. Yesterday, as I was leaving the school, I visited with Ms. "B" whose room is across the hall. A teacher of computer applications and business, she has been in the system for nearly 30 years. She's the one who told me why she never wears skirts to work: the last time she did, 17 years ago, a bad fight broke out in her class, and while trying to break it up, she ended up rolling around on the floor with the students, dress hiked up a just little too high. Since then, she has always worn pants. I asked her how she was, and she looked like she was going to burst into tears. She said she wasn't sure how she was going to make it through the rest of the week, let alone the rest of the school year. "I feel despondent," she continued. "Mr. D. came in to evaluate me and gave me a whole string of NI's. Said I failed to wake up a sleeping student. I didn't see the student, if there was one, because I was so involved in helping an awake-one on the other side of the room. Said you couldn't see the Word Wall on the other side of the room because the letters were too small. Said a girl was opening her cell phone from her purse. Well, if that's true, why didn't HE take it away and write her up? HE's the AP! Then another one came in and gave me a bunch of NI's for stupid reasons. I've never gotten an NI in all the years I've been teaching. I feel so depressed." I told her that it was happening to a lot of teachers, probably to provide back-up data to justify the school's low test scores.
At our English Dept. meeting this week, someone asked Ms. C. where she was going for spring break next week, and she said, "Toronto." So I burst out, "So am I!" What a coincidence. She doesn't know anyone there, but says she likes to travel to a different city for every school vacation, just to try something new. I'm going to visit my cousins, both retired teachers who I find so interesting and smart. Ms. C. gave me her cell phone number and said, "Let's get together there."
It's been a busy week. I took the cat to the vet on Monday for shots and a sudden hair loss problem. The doctor did some tests and phoned me the next day to say that Gus has an overactive thyroid and needs to go on medication. I picked up the meds the next day and administered the first dose, which went down fine; the second and third would not stay down. Getting it down his throat, even with a dropper, is not fun.
P's new quarter started this week, and L is studying for a test next week and is all aquiver with tension. He is a naturally high-strung person, although most people don't see this as clearly as those of us who live with him.
I've been grading on-line for the North Carolina Writing Assessment, through the company that oversees the SAT's, which I grade a lot. I thought it might be interesting to see what quality of work a 7th grader can do, to give me a frame of reference. It's a little scary to see that many 7th graders write just as well as my 12th graders, if not better. I guess that doesn't say much for me, as their writing instructor.
I stopped at Wal-Mart this afternoon to pick up a few things, and came across the David McCullough book on John Adams, which I've been wanting to read anyway, so picked it up. L. and I have been watching the HBO series, so I'm looking forward to diving into that one.
I leave for Toronto tomorrow, so maybe I'll write some entries from there.
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