Despite having to write two office referrals, today was a much better day. I think it was the stress of everything on top of my classes acting up that just made it all seem hopeless for a moment. I know I'm stressed as I have broken out with six pimples which is very unusual for me. Sure, sometimes I'll get one, maybe two at that time of the month and that's usually it. I was one of those lucky ones that never had an acne problem. Probably because my skin is always so dry. But now I'm off topic... oh yeah... a better day. Two office referrals. That is quite unusual as well. Even when I was masochistic and taught junior high years ago I hardly ever wrote office referrals or even assigned detentions. Yesterday I wrote 3 detentions, today was another detention and then the two referrals. One of them was for a student that was more than 10 minutes late to my class. The other was for a student that refused to do his work and when I told him if it wasn't done by the end of class he would receive an detention he said he wouldn't serve so I might as well give him a referral... so I did. Sometimes you just have to pick your battles. But I was quite impressed with my classes today. Almost everyone finished typing their letters today. Last time I had this assignment, two days was not enough. Now I have to refigure my schedule next week to coordinate with upcoming principal observation. I am really not worried about my observation... which is kind of weird for me. But I think it is because I don't feel intimidated by my principal. My last principal scared the heck out of me.
One of the things we talked about in our meetings on Monday was about the problems we were having in our classes. A big issued we complained about was the fact that many of our students can barely read. Sure they can read basic stories and simple things, but I think many of them are maybe only on an elementary school level. Their writing is also quite atrocious. Out of about 75 letters that I read today, maybe a handful were written on a high school level. Even some of the smart kids had strange spelling and grammatical errors. If I get a chance, I'll post some of their writing and see what you think of it.
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Yesterday I started a book called, Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning. The beginning chpaters paint a bleak picture of where education is going and the failed administrative attempts to fix it. I have yet to get to the book's solutions, but I wondered what you thought about why kids are not learning to read today? You and I and even some of the slowest in our high school class didn't have these kinds of problems. What's the main difference - from one who is "in the field."
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