Nope, not one here! 🙂

 

Actually, my mind is wandering to next year.  We have had great termoil here, with much trimming due to budget, and in all of it, our hallway continues to work hard. However, we’ve all expressed frustration about the “not knowing” part of our jobs.  Two years ago, our hallway sat down together and hammered out a three year plan, knowing we’ve got a very small class, thus one grade level teacher instead of two.

 

Now, we are being cut down again, with a population of kids where poverty is more wide spread, and a schedule that is being squeezed with an hour of common reading.  We’ll put our minds together soon, and come up with another “plan” but the problem with this is, it puts people WAY out of their comfort zone.  Heck, I’m teaching literacy, WAY out of my comfort zone, but, I’m learning and getting better at it.  There’s been talk of making a “tech” teacher, writing teacher, departmentalize, or keep this as it is.

 

With all of this, the over lying  problem: testing, period.  From what I’ve heard, our scores have not looked good (fifth grade, not so bad), but can we keep doing what we are doing or do we need to change things up, throwing more uncertainty into a situation that is very uncertain to begin with.  On the flip side, with our common reading time, it’s something very different from what’s been done before, and for the most part, we as an elementary like it.

 

Either way, I’ll be talking with my principal about a possible “technology open house” for my classroom.  I’ve got many technology ideas to put together over the summer, but for the most part, we can be a 1 to 1 classroom, without taking the computers home. How awesome will this be?? In order to make this work, I really want buy in from my parents, thus the idea of an open house. If this can happen, students and parents will be more comfortable, I’ll be more comfortable, and we can really jump right into some neat projects without the hesitiation that can sometimes happen.

 

Next year is a while away, but yet, I’m nervous, scared, and excited for that time to get here. There are so many things that can be done, yet, will they?  Only time will tell.