"Is Florida a state?"

Today, during 6th period, a group of boys were discussing vacations and where they've been.  One kid brought up Hawaii.  The other boys thought Hawaii was close to Florida.  While they were discussing the geographical location of Hawaii, one kid was confused.  He didn't think that Florida was a state.  He argued with the other boys for about 5 minutes before they brought me in to their foolishness.  He was devastated to find out that he was wrong.  Didn't we learn our states and capitals in the 3rd grade?  He obviously was absent that day. 

My Monday started off like most Mondays.  I laid in the bed until the last possible minute then did a mad dash to get ready for school so I could be on time for our faculty meeting.  Usually our meetings are about what's going on that week, any changes we need to make, and any other information that's important to us functioning as a school.  Well, this morning's meeting left a lot of teachers frustrated and rather irritated.  The topic?  TST *cue evil music*  TST is the process of putting kids that are failing on Tier plans to give them a little extra help.  On paper it's a great idea.  However, the task of putting the plan in, getting the kid and the parent to participate, doing the follow ups is quite daunting.  Everything is the teacher's fault.  Never mind that the kid has a parent at home.  I won't say too much else about it though.  Just the thought of TST makes my heart beat fast and my palms sweat.  Bush was wrong for this NCLB crap.  That is all.

My 6th period class's behavior is still improving.  I'm so proud.  My 7th period had to learn a very hard lesson Friday.  They're continuing to be disrespectful, rude, talkative, etc.  Well, they had a test scheduled for Friday.  I was going to let them take the test with a partner and use their notes, book, and ask for help.  Pretty much it was going to be an easy test.  It was going to be my last attempt to help boost their averages and review them for their exam.  I'm nice like that.  They showed out terribly.  As a result of their behavior they had to work alone, no book or notes, and no help from me.  They were sick.  There are a few good kids in that class and those kids got to use the notes and I helped them.  The rest would raise their hands to ask and I had nothing for them.  They fussed about it saying it wasn't fair that I helped some and not others.  I told them that it isn't fair that I have to constantly tell them to be quiet and listen either.  They were silent the rest of the period.  I still wouldn't help them.  They need to learn that they can't just be good when they want/need something.  They have to be good all the time.  We'll see how tomorrow goes. 

This week is our homecoming week.  I didn't dress up today and the kids were really surprised because I usually participate.  The dress up days this year are kinda weird.  Whenever I went to school we had cool days.  I dressed up all the time.  We had twin day, opposite day, pajama day, camo day, I don't remember what else. Oh! 70s day was another.  I probably won't dress up any this week.  Well, I'll do camo and spirit day.  I just don't see myself wearing a toga or dressing up like a Disney character. 

For those of you that pray, I ask that you say a prayer for the teachers and those that run the schools.  You really need to pray if you have children in school.  Schools are losing focus on what's important, the children.  I would love to talk to the people that are passing all of these education reform laws and making all of these cuts and invite them to my classroom to see what I do everyday.  They wouldn't last a whole day.  I would also like to talk to the higher ups on a local level because they've lost focus.  There are good teachers leaving the field because of all the rules and stuff being passed down from people who either have no idea what it means to be a teacher or have been in an administrative position so long that they've forgotten what it means to be a teacher.  With that said, just pray that those in authority will get a clue and we as teachers can educate the future properly.  Our future is doomed if we keep this up.  *gets off soapbox*