Six weeks in...
It's mid-October already?
I've been a busy beaver -- we're talking nature's rendition of the Hoover Dam busy.
When the school year began, my humble little middle school in Minneapolis had a little problem with class sizes. My reading class fluctuated around thirty-six students until things finally settled down. Our Arabic elective class at one point had forty. Even the technology class I taught had twenty-two... which sounds great until I add that there were only eighteen computers in the classroom I used.
All of us took on the extra duties while budgets and allocations were wrangled into some semblance of coherence. We have added a few more teachers to take the load off everyone a little.
In the meantime, I was tapped to head up the CALT tests. These are the computerized versions of the NALT. You might know of these when you listen to the news and hear how American students are doing in reading and math compared to students in other countries around the world.
As "inefficient" as paper-and-pencil tests might be, the only way they will crash is if the truck carrying them fails to stop before going over a cliff.
That's just a small taste of the ten to fifteen hours I put in each day. Needless to say, I love my work.
Okay, I don't put ten or more hours in on the weekends... unless I am grading, or writing up purchase requests for our library or computer labs, or coming up with lesson ideas for upcoming classes, or... ...yeah, I better just stop here.
At least now I know why few teachers start or even maintain a blog.
To all my Minnesota blogging colleagues, I can't tell you how much I missing hanging around here in the blogosphere.
Labels: education minnesota minneapolis teaching
posted by Moses at Saturday, October 13, 2007 
5 comment(s):
[sigh] OK, one more time: John, you CANNOT bring your class with you to Drinking Liberally.
Even if we do do baby showers now. And not even if you have parental permission slips.
By
Mark, at Sunday, October 14, 2007 11:59:00 AM
what? me? never!
I need some place to cultivate my drinking problem in relative obscurity... hey, does half-a-beer count as a drinking problem?
By
Moses, at Monday, October 15, 2007 3:00:00 PM
Only if you're drinking that swill we frequently see you drinking. Not that's a drinking problem.
By
MNObserver, at Wednesday, October 17, 2007 9:36:00 AM
Want some cheese with that whine?
By
Tracy, at Saturday, October 27, 2007 1:35:00 PM
Nice site! I will be saving this page to my favorites for sure. I just visited a site with great articles and products on dog fence ! If nothing else it’s a great read. Check it out if you have time. Thanks.
By
Anonymous, at Monday, January 21, 2008 8:48:00 PM
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