Weather Woes

Everything with the weather is always doom and gloom. Last week it was torrential downpours. This week, a rapid cold front with National Weather Service warnings on ice storms. So...

Schools close early. Not canceled, but let's create chaos at the end of the day during the week of mid-term exams. Our students were released about an hour early. Same situation with my daughter's schools.

End result - no precipitation at all over Memphis. Northwest of us got ice, southeast of us got rain. We got jack-all. Unless you count endless hours of weather forecasters breaking in and updating us on what wasn't happening (but still could - possibly - maybe).

Today I am sure 10-15% of my students won't be in school. Which wouldn't be a problem, except they have to take a mid-term, which I have to grade, enter into a computer system (which automatically calculates the semester average), input the score into a spreadsheet of my own design (which calculates the semester average, so there is backup in case the system doesn't work). So a delay on their part translates to a delay on my part.

And if I want to not come to work on Friday, all my grades need to be entered by the end of Thursday. And because of yesterday's early dismissal, I am behind on much of it.

And speaking of mid-terms, let's not go into the stupid requirements from the district. Each test must be no more than 40 questions (this is covering 4 chapters, mind you, spread over 18 weeks). Every question must be linked to a state performance indicator (this is after we were told to disregard these indicators, since we don't want to teach to the TCAP test). And mid-terms will be administered during a regular class period, instead of the normal double length (which gave students enough time to complete the test...usually). So I have a test that doesn't adequately assess the students' knowledge of the material, shoved into a time allotment that is too short.

Yeah, we are all about the children...all about the learning.