It’s been a good long time since I last wrote in my delightful little journal. I did start some entries here and there, but that doesn’t do any good if they aren’t actually finished and published. I’ve had a bit of a block on how and what to write, to be perfectly honest. I also felt like I had nothing new to add to my previously written entries. And now? I’m just writing a bunch of excuses that sound horrible and pathetic. Heh.
School is over. The kids have gone home. Report cards have been signed and sent home. Retention letters have been completed. Summer school notices have been sent. All seems delightfully wonderful, doesn’t it?
Here is a little (boring) backstory. This year it has been made perfectly clear from the beginning that the students would have to work really hard to be promoted. It was set in print that if the student didn’t do this or that, he or she would be retained. Well, it came down to it finally. I’ve talked about this before so I’ll not go into it again.
After a couple of meetings with the principal to clarify some things, we made a list of who we thought would fail the CRCT and whom we thought we’d be retaining (due to their scores). I had my list of five students (which was on the low end compared to the other classes). Then we got our ITBS scores back—the first test. Based on those, my list went to four students. We made calls home to warn parents, sent home may-be-retained letters if we had any surprises, and prepared for the end of the year.
We were told not to send home report cards because we didn’t have the CRCT scores, so we didn’t know who was technically passing and who wasn’t. Paperwork is added to our agenda on a daily basis. One day it’s yellow sheets that we now need to fill out. The next day it is announced that we have Level I plans to fill out for anyone we are sending to summer school. Another day, there are pink forms that need to be filled out. It’s past ridiculous at this point. Coming from a school where there was not so much paperwork to a school where we are inundated with paperwork was turning me into a person whom I did not like. Anyway…………..
At the end of the day on Thursday, the night before the last day of school, we still weren’t sending home report cards. Because of all the other paperwork needing to be done, the report cards were at the bottom of my immediate priority list. Then the call came at 8:30 p.m. On Thursday. The night before the last day of school. The CRCT scores came in and we would have to send home report cards. Needless to say, I was at school until 9:30 getting the scores and figuring out who really was retained, who really was promoted, who was retained if they went to summer school, etc. I went home that night and lost control. I cried and cried. I released the tension that I’d been feeling for many weeks. I didn’t get any work done that night on report cards (which I hadn’t even averaged grades yet). The next day I didn’t have any planning time due to the annual talent show. I was, quite frankly, freaking out.
I have a wonderful mentor teacher. She watched my students at the talent show so that I could get some work done. Then our classes were taken by others to let the entire third grade deal with the tasks thrown on us at the last minute. I did get my report cards done. There were 5-8 sheets to go in with the report cards, depending on the services the students received---ESOL, Title, etc. The day was crazy, but at 3:20 we had our last afternoon announcements. Music was played over the intercom and we danced and had a good time. (Well, if you’ve been following my entries at all, you’ll know that we didn’t really have a good time because as you could imagine, I was trying to keep and maintain some kind of order, and I mean that in the loosest sense of the word.)
When all is said and done . . .
School is over. The kids have gone home. Report cards have been signed and sent home. Retention letters have been completed. Summer school notices have been sent. All seems delightfully wonderful, doesn’t it?
previous |
current | next
|
