"I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date!"

I felt a little bit like the rabbit from "Alice in Wonderland" this week. Grades, which I submitted while in Austin, were supposed to be a quick verification on Tuesday when I returned to school. However, the entire internet system was completely down, and by down, I mean just by having an ethernet cable plugged into your computer made it freeze. The whole thing was completely bonkers. I didn't have verification sheets until Wednesday, and then was only able to verify my grades by using my internet connection at home (our school gradebooks are online). Unfortunately, putting in a little extra time at home was not the only problem, as several other teachers had errors in their grades and thus every teacher was asked to verify all of their grades by hand. Not wanting to screw up the grades of a kid who could pass/fail because of a computer error, I went ahead and verified all of my grades just like I was asked. Three times. I had virtually no problems, with the only grade changes being required for students who turned in work late or for those who transferred into my class after the 1st six weeks and did not have all their grades. When I originally sent in my grades, I double checked all of these students, but still went ahead with the hand verification. It wasn't THAT bad, but I did feel like I was doing quite a bit of busywork.

The school's internet --- geez... where do I even begin? I wasn't able to submit attendance, print out grades, or even check grades at school for kids that were freaking out thinking they didn't pass or wouldn't be able to play sports, etc. It was a HUGE headache, and I'm just hoping the scheduled internet "fix" on Monday will solve all of the connection problems.

Observations
I was observed several times this week, but never really thought twice about it. One of the observations was a fairly important one, seeing as a bad observation could mean that I don't have a job next year. Frankly, I didn't care if my observers were in the room or not. I figured that I'll teach the same way for my kids when there is or is not another adult in the room. Apparently this attitude carried over with the kids as well, since they mostly ignored the observers without me even having to mention it. This did cause a bit of a double-edged sword though, as students were as active as ever, but some also felt the urge to talk... as they usually do. They didn't feel the need to put on a performance, and I appreciated it. It was nice to know that all of my kids were doing all their work and they didn't even know they were being observed until after the class was over and I was thanked by my many visitors.

UIL Competitions
I judged a UIL (University Interscholastic League) Competition this Saturday at the High School. None of my kids competed, which was a little disappointing, but I did get to read a good 60 papers in the "Ready Writing" competition. "Ready Writing" is basically a competition where students are supposed to write more or less expository pieces about one of two prompts they are given. The kids have 2 hours to crank out an interesting, structurally and grammatically correct essay while bringing in as much of their knowledge as possible. Most of the students were Juniors or Seniors, so it was great to see some near-college level writing. I love teaching my 9th graders, but I can tell that the majority of them have not found their individual voices yet. Their writing lacks the type of intellectual personality that they will undoubtedly develop over the next 3 years. Don't get me wrong, I can still pick out any of my students papers just by hearing it, and every one of them has greatly improved this year, but it's just not the same when you compare it to a student who is about to enter into their own world of self-driven learning.

These kids definitely had some personality. I wish I could share some examples with you all, but I'm sure that's against some type of UIL guideline. At the very least I'd be given quite the stern look next time I show up to a competition.

Anywho... I'm off to bed so I can power on through another 5 days of excitement, turmoil, and unexpected new tasks.