A Five week Six weeks

So our school has six separate grading periods, which are called "Six Weeks". Last year, this worked out perfectly, as each grading period had six weeks, with two of them having six weeks plus a few days here and there from holiday-shortened weeks. However, this last six weeks only had five weeks. It seems ridiculous, but I just spent several weeks telling students that our six weeks only had five weeks. For students struggling to read, I can only imagine how their minds dealt with such an abstract and inane concept. Clearly our establishment couldn't cope as progress reports reached parents the week of our finals testing, and as such parents were trying to drop students from classes in order to keep them from failing. It doesn't really help, but I guess they figure they should be doing something because their students are failing, and heaven forbid the kids actually try to make up work and bring up their grade the proper way.

Nevertheless, I had 6 new students the last week, and as such I need to figure out how the heck I'm going to calculate their grades. My common sense radar started blaring after I noticed 3 new students in one class, and promptly e-mailed the counselors asking for no more schedule changes to be made until next week. It's absolutely baffling how people expect the new teacher to get a kid up to speed and PASSING with 1-3 school days left in the grading period, testing being conducted, all while attempting to navigate the grading system and merge the student's new grades with their old teacher's. It's actually brilliant work on the part of the parents, as I'm sure most teachers just give the student a 70 so that they are passing. It backfires quite a bit though, as I know several teachers who refuse to give the student a passing grade, and they are forced to come to Saturday school to make-up their grade (something the kid would have been forced to do anyways).

Anyways, I should get back to grading. Wish me luck.

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At least I'm conducting diagnostic tests tomorrow and Tuesday. That's right, I said "diagnostic testing", and it's almost halfway through the year. More on that story in my next post.

A stressful time

Immediately after saying I would post twice a week, things decidedly got more hectic at school. Last week, I only taught one day of class as I was out sick on Monday and Tuesday with food poisoning (I lost ten pounds. Great diet, huh?). Wednesday and Thursday I was out for training so that I could create the NEW Todd website (yes, this is different than last year's). So that just left Friday, Halloween, as the one day of the week where I would be teaching. Needless to say, not much was accomplished and I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to get my kids ready for their six weeks exams AND get them to finish their 5 paragraph research essays. It's a stressful time.

I don't know how to really bring this up, so here it is

Also, on a more serious note, we lost one of our former students a few weeks ago in a shooting. This particular ex-student (he had withdrawn) was riding bikes with one of my students when they got into a fight with some OTHER students from my school. A gun was pulled and the ex-student was shot in the head and killed. I didn't really know the victim, although I had broken up a fight that he was getting into a week before he was killed. Regardless of who this boy was and what kind of person he was, he didn't deserve to die.

My student that was with him has since withdrawn from school, and I doubt I'll ever see him again. He was having lots of behavior problems and I had met with his mom several times to discuss it with her and the principal. I had even called his mom the night of the shooting. It's a shame, because I really don't know how this is going to affect the rest of his life. He wasn't in a good place before, and I'm sure seeing his friend shot and killed traumatized him. At least his mom cares - maybe she can help him come out of this and turn his life around so he doesn't end up like his friend.

Since the victim and the killers (4 students were arrested) were students or former students, just about everyone on campus was connected somehow to the event. It was an absolute mess that week at school, as we weren't aware of family or friendship ties, news media was covering the shooting, and a text message threat was sent out to coincide with the funeral and promised retribution against the killers and their family. Unfortunately, one of the killers' sisters is a great student: a cheerleader, honor student, very well-put-together person. Because her brother was an idiot, her life was turned upside down and she had to worry about her own life. Luckily, nothing happened, and a cadre of police officers and vehicles was there to make sure of it.

Ugh. I'm sorry. I'm just not really in a typing mood tonight. Hopefully just getting this post out will allow me to write more about the event and my thoughts later.

Here's a few news links about the shooting.
4 Juveniles Detained
Residential Reaction


Calling all commenters!!

Since this blog is specifically on the internet to serve as an account of my life as a teacher and share it with all of you, I'm sure you all would like me to update more often. However, I'm finding myself very lackadaisical in this pursuit, partly because it often seems like I'm typing only for myself. Please, please comment. I don't care if your comments are insightful, but if you just post something, then I can start a discussion WITH all of you, and my blog will seem like less of a chore and more of a way to stay in touch with everyone.