Kontan.

Monday: running crazy trying to get the week off to a good start…had to finish notes on antebellum MS and prepare for a sub on Tuesday.

Tuesday: sanity day…dentist appt in the morning, me and both girls. Good report on oldest, youngest has her first cavity. We’ll have to buckle down on that. I have to see an oral surgeon to determine if my bottom wisdom teeth should come out. No doubt they should, it is just a matter of whether they are too close to the nerve or not. Already had the tops out and I will not have the bottoms out unless I am totally 100% unaware that anything is going on. Ugh I hope the dental insurance covers it. Spent the rest of the day in North AL and really enjoyed myself. It was exciting to be back in the area.

Wednesday: Oh joy. Back at school, day after a sub. Picking up the pieces, students still working on their review for the chapter. I required them to complete 56 multiple choice questions, most upper level of Bloom’s, and they had to justify every answer. This was a tough concept for most. A few “got it”. Others thought they would test to see if I was serious…just having the answers does not count, there HAD to be an explanation justifying the choice to receive credit…and “you said it” or “I read it” didn’t count. Had to miss my afternoon classes so that I could attend a required “Measured Progress” session. Strangely it dealt with the same strategies I was currently using with the answer justification. Basically it was a continuation of an earlier workshop for testing procedures and multiple choice testing. I don’t agree with everything, but there was decent info offered. It was a good refresher of one of my undergrad edu courses.

Thursday: Felt like Friday all day. We were on lockdown for an hour around mid-day. Here‘s part of the reason why. There was also a 911 call in threat that required the school to be checked for security. Don’t know how related the two incidents were. Oddly, the words “lockdown” or “code-red” were never used. We were told to get lunch kids back to their 4th period and keep them there until further notice. I will withhold further comment as I believe it is in my best interest to do so. However, for the remainder of the day test review was interesting.

Friday: Hectic. Pep-rally first thing. If you need a really good way to insure that your entire day will be turned upside down, try this. First there is the grand attempt to excite the students for the upcoming football game, then the remainder of the day is spent on a different bell schedule. High-schoolers (and their teachers) are creatures of habit. You want to mess up their day, change the bells. I had to get a test in today, pass out exam reviews, and folders containing their tests this nine weeks. Hard to pack that into a 50 minute period. Honestly, it was Monday when I realized we have exams next week. I thought I had a whole other week to start the Civil War. Whoops.

Since school started we have not had a single non-disrupted week. We have also had at least one faculty meeting, of some kind, every week. The general consensus is that this has been a difficult start and we are drowning in paperwork. Admin proclaims it to be a wonderful start. I’ll take the 5th, thanks.