That's a (W)rap...

I have never been more grateful for a Saturday. At least not in recent memory. Maybe if I dug deep into the trenches of my brain, back to those first few weeks and months of school, I would find a memory that told me otherwise. But since I have tried to black those months out, I won't even go there.

As you may have read in my last post, this week was absolute misery, chaos, and never-ending pain. By the time Friday rolled around, I was ready for the normal schedule again. But alas, nothing can ever go according to schedule. There was still make-up testing to be done, so we had to hold our homerooms yet again, for another long 7 hours. Luckily, I had organized some Math Olympic Games the night before, and even though the kids complained about having to "do work" (umm, welcome to school my friends), we had a blast (for about 45 minutes). I was also prepared with a movie and episodes of the Cosby Show, plus decks of cards to entertain my little hustlers. I even joined in on some of the card games, surprising my kids when I beat them in a game of what they call "tump", but what you probably know as rummy. I must admit, it was satisfying to hear the shock in their voices when they said, "Dang, Miss H know how to play cards!" They also spent some time working on their EOG rap, which you can see below.

My roommates and I have celebrated the newest milestone--we are in the "teens" when it comes to the number of days we have left of school. It would feel great, except that there are so many hurdles to jump before then. We are hoping to have their EOG scores by Monday, which will tell us how many students passed and how many have to re-test. Students that have to re-test will be assigned to remediation groups, and the teachers will have to work together to try to cram in 9 months worth of instruction into one week. We insist that if they don't pass the EOG they won't move on to the next grade, but they know we are just using good ol' fashioned scare tactics. They know that over half of our students failed the EOG last year and still moved on to the next grade. Problem #346 with the state of education.

Next week promises to be filled with challenges, especially those stemming from unmotivated and lackadaisical students who didn't care for the first nine months, and likely still won't care for the next five days. But on top of that comes our next biggest issue, one that is found only in a school district as impoverished and limited as ours: we are forbidden from making any more copies at school. Most Hanover or Henrico County schools would never dream of denying teachers resources as fundamental as copies. But we apparently have no choice; budget restraints have gotten the best of Halifax County. No more worksheets, practice problems, study guides, etc, unless they are at our own expense. How we are supposed to remediate for 5 days with no access to copies is beyond me. My parents have been generous enough to buy me a copy machine of my own, but the upkeep is expensive on a teacher's salary. I hold my breath every time I print a document or run something through my copier, praying that I won't get an error message that reads, "Toner Empty". Oh, how my problems have changed so dramatically in just one year's time.

But as always, we will make it. I think these last few weeks will be similar to the first few weeks: I'll be in total survival mode, doing whatever it takes just to make it through one more day, until the glorious day that is June 8th arrives.