Friday, July 22, 2011

Book Club and Book Store

I am sitting in Barnes and Noble at the coffee shop.  Josh and I ditched our house for the day so our air conditioner didn't have to kill itself trying to keep the house cool.  The heat index today is 117.  Seriously!

So, I am doing some grad school work here.  And I am currently taking a break.  It is about 65 degrees in here, which is cold.  But I really don't want to complain considering I could be outside having a heat stroke right now. I have been doing a very large amount of work on our group project for school and I am excited to share it soon!

In other news, I was invited by some ladies at my school to be in their book club.  I am really, really, really excited!  I love stuff like that and I have never been a part of a book club before!  The closest I have ever come is being in a bible study group and it was awesome.  I really enjoy having a goal and then having meaningful and thoughtful discussions with other adults... especially when it doesn't have to do with work or education... I get enough of that at school.  They are currently reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  I have been wanting to read this book for a while and now I have a good reason to do it:
Have you read it?  What did you think?

Another development has recently taken place.  We had a meeting at school this week to discuss our upcoming school year.  A lot of changes have been going on at my school and in my county lately.  First of all, our school didn't make AYP this year.  If you don't know what that is, Google it.  I would tell you, but it makes me too frustrated to talk about it.  By the way, we lost it because of two students and six total questions on a test.  Second of all, we are no longer a Title I school.  This is very bad.  For many reasons.  The main ones being that because of this, we will lose a number of services, a ton of finances and financial resources, and a lot of personnel.  Google Title I if you don't know about it.  Because of this, my principal is forcing me to spend 45 minutes per day in 4th or 5th grade classrooms working with small groups to teach reading and math.  This is something that Title I teachers or assistants would typically do, but since we no longer have them...  it's up to the music and P.E. teachers.  Seriously.  

I understand that our kids now need these services, so I am a little torn about the whole situation.  I feel bad complaining about it, but if we ever want to meet AYP, I might need to help in this area.  But, it's definitely not my job, I'm definitely not qualified for it, and it's taking away time from my schedule to teach our 650 kids some awesome music.  Also, and most importantly, I DON'T WANT TO DO IT!  It's sad that I have to do this just so we can "pass a test".  Having their music teacher teach them music would be way more beneficial for them, but that's the way of the education world lately.  It's very sad.

On a happy note, G is coming in the morning and I am super excited to see her and do some cool Ocean City stuff.  Have a great (and cool) weekend!

2 comments:

  1. Sorry about the reading/math time. There are one or two elementary schools in our county that do it, but it's not a county wide decision yet... I'm afraid that that will come about. The reason some of our schools don't make AYP is not because of tests, but because we can't get our poorer kids to come to school.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Read The Help! It is a great book and the movie is coming out August 10th I believe! It is a must read!

    ReplyDelete