Storm Chasing

Storms raced across the skies south of Lancaster yesterday ... Sunshine and shadow turned blue skies an ominous grey while we watched to learn whether we'd be the storm's target. We weren't -- smaller towns southeast of us in Van Zandt took the hit. I was glad the Faire had ended, so the travellers weren't in the exposed campgrounds -- if a storm broke, I suspect that the faire grounds might be safer, though Joy might argue that both locations held danger since tornadoes tend to go for creekbeds ... fact or fiction? I don't know.

The 10th grade math test is done; for good or ill, the fate of many schools has been determined by whatever math scores are achieved in May. I don't know whether all the hits our math dpt. took in 2010-11 has ruined our chances of rising to recognized; it's been a concern all year ... to the point that an asst. principal taught several TAKS remediation sections this semester. One girl came back to my class moaning that she STILL didn't know enough geometry -- and they had pulled her from English class for 3 weeks. (I suspect she didn't stay for after school tutoring or attend Saturday school. She didn't come for English.)

That's part of the frustration of being a teacher in the age of high stakes testing: your career isn't determined by how hard you work or your talents. It rests on student achievement, and a teacher has limited control over student behavior, skills, or discipline. The legislature may pass a new law to increase class size, allow furlough days for teachers, and remove the state minimum salary ... which makes the billboard on I-30 that tries to recruit teachers rather ironic. With all the sturm und drang, who will seriously consider investing their college dollars and career time in a profession that has become so de-stabilized? I guess the current economy has created an instability for many professions ... but teaching is one of the few that has so many rules created by people from other professions.

Yesterday, I was assigned to babysit seniors doing English -- ironically, most of them were AP seniors. The regular seniors were mainly no shows. We'll see if the principal carries out his threat to withdraw them until there's a parent conference to re-enroll them. Today I'm a hall monitor for the testing rooms on second floor. Thursday, I test 9th grade math. (Shudder!! trapped in a room with freshmen from 8:40 to 4:05.) Friday, the composition lesson -- with freshmen again ... and Intergem this weekend. Oooo, sparklies!!