Whoops, so I sort of forgot about that vow to keep this updated on a regular basis. It's been a busy few weeks filled with meeting after meeting after meeting. We're having meetings about when to hold the next meeting, I swear.

Apparently the LA department is totally to blame for kids not passing their state mandated tests. Because the kids don't read anywhere else in the school besides in English class. I love the responses from the other departments when we try to tell them that there are ways that they can help prepare the kids for the tests by utilizing reading strategies which they learn in our classes. You'd think that we just asked them to cure cancer or melt the polar ice caps.

So, it's all our fault, and we, apparently, are the only ones who must fix it. Oh, and did I mention that funding, jobs, and our school's reputation all ride on this? Yes, it'll be a fun year.

We must motivate the unmotivated, spark interested in the disinterested, and perform miracles on students who have none of the following: support from home, "time" to do homework, no place to do said homework, computers to do homework on...do you get the point? I'm probably preaching to the choir here.

There is a list of all the kids who did not pass these tests last year. I can say that very few of my kids were on that list. Is it because I'm a great teacher? Probably not. I think it's because the vast majority of my kids had higher reading scores even coming in to my classroom in the first place. Is the same true this year? No, not really. So, it is now my job to not only teach to the test while attempting to jam the rest of curriculum into their heads, but also bring certain kids up multiple reading levels in one semester.

The kids are like baby birds, most of them have their hungry mouths open, ready to accept the food, and I'm the mama bird, coming with 50 giant grasshoppers which they cannot possibly digest in one sitting, let alone fit into their mouths. But I'm still going to cram it into their eager waiting mouths because IT IS MY JOB. Sorry, a pretty bad metaphor.

In other news, I had my very first write-up today. A gentleman from my modified Am Lit class "forgot" his folder out in the Ag-shop. I fell for it, gave him a pass and 3 minutes to get back to class. 20 minutes went by. Then, he comes back with a bandaged hand. He "brushed up against some rebar" in the shop and had "spent most of the 20 minutes getting bandaged up in the nurse's office." Yeah right, and I'm the pope. The nurse confirmed that he was there for just a few minutes at the end of the 20 minute time span.

My friend was dinking around out there for 20+ minutes, got hurt somehow (not sure where Ag-Shop teacher was during this time...that's another issue altogether), and lied right to my face. When I called him out on it, he began verbally abusing me (another first this year - yay!).

I told him to get out, and he left my room in a huff, saying that it was okay because he needed to go and get stitches anyway. Fan-friggin-tastic.

He needs to go away. He is the only student in that class who I do not have under my total control. I say jump, and these kids ask how high? They are invested in me and I in them - all except for my bloody-gashy friend. Even though he's got buddies galore in class, they tell him to shut up all the time, and despite a new seating chart, in which my friend is seated RIGHT NEXT TO MY PODIUM, he still not shut the frick up.

Okay, I've gotten it out. I hope that this incident will be enough to get him kicked out of class, but we'll see. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about reacing those who seem unreachable, but I have an entire class full of those, and he's disrupting their learning and my ability to remain in control of my class.

I'm done.