It's okay you can call me stupid!

Sometimes we just don’t think.

    As those of you that live in our great state of Louisiana may or may not know, it’s getting extremely close to the most anticipated time of the school year. 

TESTing time.  With a special thanks to our esteemed Governor (I mean no disrespect), our salaries and our jobs are dependent upon these test scores and whether or not our angels show improvement from the previous year’s test.  (When I say ‘our’, I mean teachers, not him of course.  Although, not a bad idea. Fair is fair).

    Anyway, not the point.  It’s our “crunch time” right now.  It’s the time of the year when you, the teacher, realize that you only have a month until testing.  That’s thirty days.  No, wait weekends don’t count, subtract that week for spring break.   Oh, and we need at least four days before testing to review what we taught at the beginning of the year, not that they’ve forgotten any of that stuff.  That gives us, let’s see, hum, 30 – Saturdays, and Sundays, then subtract five no six days (instructional days) for spring break, don’t forget to take away Thursday and Friday of this week, that equals……….

30-8= 22

22-4=18

18-6=12

12- Thursday and Friday of this week (their spoken for) =

10 DAYS! 

Ladies and gentlemen, that’s what we call CRUNCH TIME.

    Crunch time:  When you get right down to the nuts and bolts of things we have less than two weeks of instructional time left to crunch in 30 to 40 GLE’s (Grade Level Expectations).

    So, today my science partner and I were trying to figure out how to squeeze in all this and 5 chapters between now and testing.  (Of course you have to throw a few tests in there and a project or two.)

    So we were sitting there, thinking what can we do?  How are we going to pull in this and pull in that and make it all flow?  We can do that, make the bits and pieces flow, make them connect.  We got this! No problem.

   But how are we going to get in those last two chapters, you know the ones.  The two chapters of the last unit that is not taught till the end of the year.  The last unit you never really get to because time doesn’t permit. Only because testing keeps moving up closer and closer to the beginning of the school year and not at the end.(By the way GLE’s are what the students must know by the end of the year, yet they are tested much sooner.)

    So we decided to do a project.  Squeeze one in that will cover the essentials of the unit.  We’ll do this, that, or the other and come up with some sort of fantastic project menu with student choices, on energy use and renewal. 

    How are we going to do that?   What are we going to have them do?

    Well, after scarfing down a piece of pizza, I had about 4 minutes to get on the Internet and search.  Surely someone has developed a plan for this subject area, right?  No point in reinventing the wheel, just paint it, give it a little sparkle here and there.  Maybe a touch of glitter.

   I’ll go check in with this network our district works with and check out their lessons.  I’ve even submitted and had some lessons of my own accepted.  (Gonna Brag now)  I was even the featured Gold Seal Lesson on the monthly network newsletter. 

So I type in the word energy. 

Guess what?

The first lesson that pops up…………………………….

 

MINE!

    Here I was straining my brain trying to think, OK how can I get this in, and how can I make this work? There’s no possible way.

    When right there on the computer screen I see, I had already submitted the lesson, already had the plan, (it was even the same lesson that had been featured the month before).  We all have those moments where we just don’t think.

 

So yes, it's okay, you can call me stupid!