Busy... Procrastinating

With daylight savings comes an extra hour of time to "get stuff done" today, but all I have found myself doing is procrastinating (probably why I am typing in my blog).

I have plenty to do... but I have just not been able to sit down and accomplish much today. I have finished three loads of laundry, done the dishes, cleaned my apartment, but none of the things I need to get finished for school.

On Wednesday we have "Math Night" at Berry. Since I am the math lead teacher at my school I am in charge of planning this entire event. It should not be too difficult, but I was surprised to find this out at Saturday school when talking to my principal. It was another one of those, "oh, I thought you knew" moments. Communication, or lack there of, is a very large area of weakness in education, at least in the school/school district I work in. There are a lot of assumptions made. Fortunately, I have learned not to assume from my farther, who said that when you assume; you make an "ass" out of "u" and "me." He has many other "clever" sayings and words of wit and wisdom, but that is one that stuck. haha

I also need to update grades. Grading is probably one of the things I like least about teaching (other than the bureaucracy, ect). It takes a lot of time to provide meaningful grades with feedback that will actually help students to grow. Many times, I will put a lot of time into grading and writing on students' assignments, just to have them no read or thrown away before they even make it out the classroom door. I know that students need to have feedback, but I sometimes struggle with the inefficiencies of grading.

I have a meeting tomorrow morning at the Alternative school for one of my students who brought a knife to school on the Friday that I was absent (Oct. 22nd). He has been at our school in in-school suspension since then, but will finally be starting at the alternative school on Monday, I think. Again, communication is lacking here, as I have no idea as to what is going on with this situation. It is just assumed that I know the process and what is happening. When I ask a question I am usually talked down to by administration and by the end of the conversation, leave with out an answer to my question. Hopefully this child will be able to excel at the alternative school where he will be in a setting with more direct contact with his instructors. He is many years behind grade level and can barely (and I mean barely) read and write. I think that some of his behavior issues stem from his inability to be successful at school in his current environment. He is a very interested case study... but that will be for another time. I think I am actually going to get to work on some of my school stuff.

Oh, by the way... If you can, please click on one of the links on the bottom of my site when you read it. You can just click on it and then close out. I get paid a very small amount every time an ad that is posted on my site gets clicked on. You don't have to buy anything or even read the information on the pop-up. Just click them. Thanks! :)