Wednesday, September 30, 2009

A month in.

I've been meaning to write and there's been a lot to write about. Between issues with students, the new workload at my school, my coursework, and the whole political scene there's more than enough to keep my fingers busy.

My school is requiring new ultra detailed lesson plans and they have to be in by Friday morning each week. The plans take me a lot of time and they're making me nuts. I get home from work 3 nights a week and write the damn things. I don't have enough time to correct papers any more. This was my year to get that stuff under control. I was finally going to stop procrastinating. I'm not procrastinating. I'm just not doing them. No time.

My new classes for my grad school program in supervision have added a lot of reading to my schedule. That's taking my time. At least the reading makes me smarter. Doing the plans just eats my brain. Filling in the grids, triple checking the work, sending it to about 12 different administrators.

The kids are OK. There are a few who are definite behavior problems. There are a few with profound learning difficulties. Hopefully they'll get on track. Experience tells me that probably won't happen. I experiment on different methods to get them on track and learning. We'll see.

Did you see Gingrich and Sharpton in Philly? They like Mastery Charter School. Big deal. Charter schools aren't the answer. A question. What happens when they've converted so many regular schools to charters that they can't cherry pick any more kids? They'll have to take regular kids - regular, unmotivated, angry kids. It will be deja vu all over again.

Just a few thoughts before bed. I'm going to get my blog back in my schedule. I've got lots to write and think about and share. Now sleep. I'm exhausted.