Schools are starting! Right on the Left Coast is tired:
I have two Algebra I classes, mostly freshmen...I'm lucky to teach at a school with a pretty good student population. But dang, sometimes it seems like no one ever taught many of these students about "inside voices".I got a call during 6th period today. My son, on his first day at his new school, fell on the bars (or something boyish like that) and bloodied his nose, bit a small hole in his tongue, and loosened a tooth. Our secretary put his school's secretary though to talk to me and she asked what they should do with him. "Is he bleeding right now?" "No." "Then send him back to class." I'm such a father!
While the Education Wonks, as always, have a point to make:
Since the 1960s, our school has offered every 7th grader a semester course in the fine arts. After our full-time (and first-year) art teacher resigned her post in favor of a better-paying job over on the coast, an administrative decision was made to "close out" the position in favor of hiring of another remedial math teacher.As we work in a school that serves a mostly lower socio-economic clientele, I'm saddened to see this happen. For many of our pupils, the school's art program was their first (and sometimes only) exposure to the fine arts...
Both the drama and music teachers will now have mixed teaching assignments: three classes of remedial English each day with only two periods of drama and music. Rumor has it that next year both the drama and music programs will be ended.
Interestingly, no administrators have ever been laid-off in the 14 years that I have been employed by our district.
Ouch.
Posted by kswygert at August 23, 2005 06:39 PM