First Day of School

Today was our first day of school. I only had 15 students, which was delightful. Unfortunately, more will come and I'm sure I'll have 27 (our class size limit) in the next few weeks. I have a few comments about this. First of all, why can't parents get their kids there on the first day of school? I understand there may be some confusion and registration issues, but this goes beyond that. Usually what happens is we get a bunch of new kids the day after Labor Day, which is when CPS starts. A lot of parents live in the city and lie about their residency, or just don't pay attention to when school starts in the suburbs. It is so frustrating because if I'm missing half of my class, what can I really do with them? I did a few getting-to-know-you activities today and briefly went over the rules. But I'll have to go over the rules again tomorrow. And Monday. We are not supposed to pass out any textbooks until after Labor Day. But I can't afford to lose that much time. ISATs are at the beginning of March; we have to make every day count. I am going to start teaching on Monday, and if not everyone's there, well, I'll find a way to get them caught up. They will have to do extra work. Because this ISAT stuff is overwhelming. My first year in the district, we needed 55% of our students to meet or exceed standards in order for us to make AYP. We did not make it. Which is really sad, but part of the problem is that by the time I get the kids, they are already so far behind. Even if they make a lot of progress with me, they're still not where they're supposed to be. Last year, our goal was 62.5%. The preliminary results show that we did not make it. (And by the way, why is it that 7 months later, we only have preliminary results? It would be nice to have some actual numbers to work with.) This year, our goal is 70%. Now, if we couldn't get 55% of our kids to pass a few years ago, how on earth are we going to get 70% of our kids to pass? I think our goal should be based on what we did the previous year, not where the state thought we should be. It's just overwhelming. Other than pacing my math lessons with the ISAT in mind, I'm not really doing anything special to try to make this 70% goal. I'm just going to teach the best that I can. Looking at those numbers is really discouraging. And back to the class size issue- I really wish I could just stay at 15 students. I could be an amazing teacher with that class size. But our classes are almost always at capacity, and some teachers go into overflow. It just seems like a really poor idea to have 33 kids in a kindergarten class.

Anyway, sorry for all this ranting. I was going to talk about what a challenge it is to be tough and not smile on the first days of school, but that will have to wait. Or not be talked about at all, except to say that it goes against my nature to act this way and just drains me. I know it will pay off, but it's hard to not express my enthusiasm. Also, it's hard to balance that strict, no-nonsense personality with all the positive things we're supposed to do with PBIS. Maybe one of these years I'll finally find a good balance.

In some non-related news, I highly recommend the PBS show, Carrier. It's about life aboard a Navy aircraft carrier. It's fascinating; you learn about the different jobs people do, and you get to hear people's stories and their opinions about the war in Iraq and patriotism and all that. I watched all 10 hours in just a couple days. After watching this show, I learned that I could never be in the Navy, but I really should be doing more to support our troops.