I did an end run and learned one class of students

I used a backdoor and found one class of 20 students. I have more than one class of this topic, so I don't know which one it is - should be fun.

Plan - it is a four letter word

According to the PTB, plan must be a four letter word. That is the only reason I can think of that they are keeping EVERYTHING close to the vest: the room you are in, the number of students you will have, etc. We already know we will need to buy supplies - everything from paper to dry erase markers - but wouldn't it be nice to know if my classes are 25 students or 40?

I guess they think we cannot complain if we don't know - fooled them!

Hybrid Schedule

How many of you have a hybrid schedule? This is our third year. It is a mix of yearlong, semester long and block classes. The point is to enable the students to fail more classes and still graduate on time.

What, you say. Surely there is a higher level reason? Surely, you don't jump through all these hoops just to enable lousy scholarship? Not that I can see.

On paper, I have two preps. Not unreasonable.

In actuality, since some are year long and some are repeater and some are block, in the fall I will have 6 preps.

By that, I mean that overall I have 2 preps that I have to do: lessons, tests, daily questions, start ups, etc. But my classes will be in six different places at any given point.

It is overwhelming to look at, so I have gone back to focusing on the two preps. If I can get those done, sifting them into the six preps should (in theory) be easy.

Do write when I enter the asylum.

It'll be at least a week before we are told

The person who has to tell us what we are teaching left for vacation today and will not be back until July 12th. And THEN it has to be approved.

School starts August 9th.

While the principal knows (maybe), if you ask him he will pass the buck to Ms. KMA, who just left on vacation. And is unreachable. Not that she will answer an email anyway.

Because, it doesn't matter that you don't know what you are teaching (and that most of it will be new to you) - it's just stuff, right? You can pull it out of your _____ (fill in the blank) in a month. No biggie. I can do that in SS, why can't you do it in math?

Planning - what an alien concept.

Excuse me while I do a slow burn. And go ahead and plan for stuff I may not be teaching.

I'm getting itchy

I know I can clean house. I know I can read education books. I could go to the movies, go for a walk, visit, write letters . . .

I want to start doing specific planning. I want to know what I am teaching. (Imagine me acting like a 2 year old, kicking on the ground.)

I don't know what the difficulty is. I really truly don't know why an administration that is so devotedly OCD refuses to plan ahead so that the school would reflect the same perfection he touts all the time.

It is getting to be really difficult. He will not release information until it is almost too late to do things - which is a form of perfection - the kind that leads to procrastination.

I honestly believe that he is incapable of understanding that there is a difference between Algebra 1 and Trigonometry and that knowing one doesn't make you prepared for the other.

Two months until school starts

And I have no idea what I am teaching, just that it will be new and require a lot of work . . . . . . .

How many of you know what you are teaching next year?

Our principal - having control issues - likes to tell us in July what we will be teaching in August.

This gets to be fun when you are handed something you have never taught before.

(I have mentioned we have no books, haven't I?)

He thinks this is reasonable because he was told we he reported for the teacher days before the start of school which English course he'd be teaching.

When are you told what you'll teach in the coming year?