Don't Say Yes Until I'm Finished Thinking
Nov. 9th, 2017 07:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serafina20WordPress with a picture of my monster.
The Maker’s Fair is over. Yay!! It went pretty well. Only two people showed up to my table, and it looked lonely and quiet compared to some of the other tables. I was jealous of the table that got to build a little house to be blown down by the Big Bad Hairdryer. And the table that built Ferris wheels looked like they had a lot of fun, too. But our participants were very creative with the toy monsters they built and seemed to have fun, so that was good. I built a toy monster, too, but mine wasn’t as creative as theirs were. Ah, well. That’s okay.
The point is it’s over, I don’t have to worry about it any more, and now I’ll have free time back.
Except for two things. The first is there’s another fair in spring, which has been explained as being closer to a science fair where we’ll put together a board and a kit on an experiment and display it. And, for some reason, we’ll bring 3 kids from our class to this fair. I’m not sure why yet, and I’m not looking forward to it.
And, the second is I somehow ended up on another district committee today. I’m not exactly sure how it happened. Around 2:25, I get a call from the office. It’s a secretary saying that the principal wanted to know if I would go to a meeting at the district office today, from 2 – 3, to talk about pacing guides and assessments. And I think I was so confused because it was already 2:25, that I just said yes. Which is not what I want to do because I have zero desire to be on the committee that writes the benchmarks for ELA. I just… I don’t want to. But, somehow, I’m now on the committee. So, for the rest of the year, I’ll be periodically meeting with women much more motivated and committed to this than I am to create the tests.
So, the bright side is I’ll have a say in what we do and how we test. I’ll get some extra money. It’ll look good on a resume, etc., etc. But, man, I need to think before I say yes next time.
Still, at least I was able to say why I didn’t use what we’re currently using as our benchmarks on our report cards. Because, realistically, some students should be able to pass the given test. Some will fail, some will perform below average, some average, and some above. But, last year and then beginning this year, that’s not what happened. My low kids failed. My medium kids failed. And my high kids failed. That’s not a fair or accurate gauge of my student’s ability. The weekly assessments? Those come out as expected. Some kids do well, some not so well, but I can see who understood the lesson/skill and who didn’t. So that’s what I used on the report cards because that’s a more accurate assessment of their abilities. And I was able to state that case in this meeting, because some of the teachers were like, “I give the test and everyone fails and that’s what goes on the report cards,” and that’s just wrong.
So, with this committee, I’ll get my say. And, I that’s a good thing.
And, finally, in my, “This is why I’m not Sherlock Holmes,” moment, after the meeting, I rushed back to school to make my copies for next week. I rush around the room, closing everything up, and then I glanced at the clock.
Which, for the entire week, had never been set back an hour. And I never noticed. And that is why I am not Sherlock Holmes.
The Maker’s Fair is over. Yay!! It went pretty well. Only two people showed up to my table, and it looked lonely and quiet compared to some of the other tables. I was jealous of the table that got to build a little house to be blown down by the Big Bad Hairdryer. And the table that built Ferris wheels looked like they had a lot of fun, too. But our participants were very creative with the toy monsters they built and seemed to have fun, so that was good. I built a toy monster, too, but mine wasn’t as creative as theirs were. Ah, well. That’s okay.
The point is it’s over, I don’t have to worry about it any more, and now I’ll have free time back.
Except for two things. The first is there’s another fair in spring, which has been explained as being closer to a science fair where we’ll put together a board and a kit on an experiment and display it. And, for some reason, we’ll bring 3 kids from our class to this fair. I’m not sure why yet, and I’m not looking forward to it.
And, the second is I somehow ended up on another district committee today. I’m not exactly sure how it happened. Around 2:25, I get a call from the office. It’s a secretary saying that the principal wanted to know if I would go to a meeting at the district office today, from 2 – 3, to talk about pacing guides and assessments. And I think I was so confused because it was already 2:25, that I just said yes. Which is not what I want to do because I have zero desire to be on the committee that writes the benchmarks for ELA. I just… I don’t want to. But, somehow, I’m now on the committee. So, for the rest of the year, I’ll be periodically meeting with women much more motivated and committed to this than I am to create the tests.
So, the bright side is I’ll have a say in what we do and how we test. I’ll get some extra money. It’ll look good on a resume, etc., etc. But, man, I need to think before I say yes next time.
Still, at least I was able to say why I didn’t use what we’re currently using as our benchmarks on our report cards. Because, realistically, some students should be able to pass the given test. Some will fail, some will perform below average, some average, and some above. But, last year and then beginning this year, that’s not what happened. My low kids failed. My medium kids failed. And my high kids failed. That’s not a fair or accurate gauge of my student’s ability. The weekly assessments? Those come out as expected. Some kids do well, some not so well, but I can see who understood the lesson/skill and who didn’t. So that’s what I used on the report cards because that’s a more accurate assessment of their abilities. And I was able to state that case in this meeting, because some of the teachers were like, “I give the test and everyone fails and that’s what goes on the report cards,” and that’s just wrong.
So, with this committee, I’ll get my say. And, I that’s a good thing.
And, finally, in my, “This is why I’m not Sherlock Holmes,” moment, after the meeting, I rushed back to school to make my copies for next week. I rush around the room, closing everything up, and then I glanced at the clock.
Which, for the entire week, had never been set back an hour. And I never noticed. And that is why I am not Sherlock Holmes.
