Monday, January 03, 2011

New Year!

I left off 'Happy' because I'm reserving judgement as to whether this will be a happy one. I'm really not looking forward to going back to work, just because I know tomorrow will be full of meetings and wasted time. Students return the following day. All I really need (for me) is a couple of hours to organize my desk and get things ready to teach. Less, if I don't bother with the desk. Instead, I will spend the day in a strange purgatory. We'll see how productive it really is. For instance, will my planning group get any time to plan? Will I be able to meet with my collaborative partners (all 4 of them) to figure out a game plan, especially for the behavior issues? More likely, the time will be preplanned for us, because goodness knows we can't be trusted to determine for ourselves how to use the time. there's my snarky side coming out. That happens from time to time, especially right before and right after a waste-of-time meeting.
I've spent a nice chunk of my time during this holiday reading some of the books that seem to form the basis of the superintendent's new initiatives. So far, he's harped on 'professional learning communities'. Only thing is, the way he's describing it, it sounds like another meeting, with set agenda and (almost) predetermined outcomes. Progress monitoring and data collection also keep coming up in his communications.
My small class will have to decide once and for all which book they want to read next. I've offered 3 possibilities. It's only fair; I chose the first 2 books we read, and they choose the third. I've also told them why I'm offering these particular titles and which one I think would be good right now. We'll see how it goes.

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