Post It

I can't believe they want us to post student work!!! This is not elementary school!!

Sorry, I wasn't quite done with my bitchfest yet. I have no idea what these administration type folks think when they offer a directive like that. Is there research that suggests that high school students are motivated by having their work posted on the classroom walls? I've got 170 students; how will the 165 whose work is not posted feel about their work not getting posted? Will they notice at all, either way?

The Baltimore City Public School System is rife with problems. I don't have enough books for my students. Let me repeat: I do not have enough textbooks to give out to my students. Our school cannot afford/supply/whatever water to allow students and staff to drink even though we have lead in the water. Yet the directive I get from the powers that be is that I need to post student work and write a bullshit 20-question multiple choice test by the end of the week when I have hundreds - literally, hundreds - of essays to grade and vocab tests to score.

I'm not going to do it. Heck, I don't even have a classroom. And if I'm asked, I have to decide whether to be combative ("I'll post student work if you can prove to me either that it's educationally sound or if I'm contractually bound to do so") or whether I will dodge the topic by simply pointing to the student work of other the students into whose classrooms I float.

I can't believe how tied up in knots I feel right now. I should be at the gym right now, but that's been trumped by listening to whiny chick music and eating Fruit Pebbles. At least they're the "half the sugar" kind, so their caloric content is not that high. And "aspartame" sounds so much more natural and healthy if you pronounce it "as part of me."