End of the cabinet saga

Today when I arrived at school the cabinet was still not open. So on the advice of the person I share my room with, I talked to the business manager at the school. She called the maintenance man, and three minutes later he was in my room busting it open. I guess it is all about talking to the right person. I now have a broken file cabinet in my room, and my boxes of files on top.

Quater Grades

I knew almost instantly when quarter grades were delivered to parents. I checked my school email at 4:30 today and I had four emails from parents and students about their quarter grades. Mostly why is my A student getting an incomplete? There are a couple of different answers to this. It depends on the student. In some cases the student is not actually an A student. In other cases it was because they have on skill that they failed. So all they need to do is one simple retake. In some cases it is because they have not returned their first test to me, so I do not have all of their grades. (There was some confusion. I thought all of the grades were written down when I handed the tests back, but not all of them were. And not all of the students have returned the test to me.)

File Cabinet, the ongoing saga

So everyday when I arrive to school I talk to the principal's secretary. For the past week everyday I have asked about the file cabinet. Bobbie, the secretary, then calls the head maintenance man about it, and then nothing happens. Tuesday we had a slight change. The maintenance man showed up and tried about several keys and then left. So yesterday when Bobbie called him again, she asked when he was going to go back and finish up. The answer has right away. I did not see him yesterday. Maybe he came by after I left. So when I get to school today I will check again, and then repeat the same process in the hope I can get the file cabinet open before parent conferences on Monday.

I love bureaucracy

So last week I decided to call Kaiser to check on my new insurance benefits. Lo and behold Kaiser had no record of me being with Portland Public. Unfortunately they did not get back to me until too late on Friday to check with benefits at Portland public that day. So I called this morning, and the person who said they had entered everything, had not. But the person I talked to today was on the case, and I now have health insurance again.

Keys to the cabinet

There are three file cabinets in my room. The person I share my room with uses two of those cabinets. The third is under the stairs that lead to the boiler room. It does not have any of the racks that you hang the folders from. So I have been piling the folders on top of each other. I was planning on spending more time last Friday organizing that cabinet and sorting out my two new algebra classes. So after I finished grading and entering it online, I went back to the cabinet, and it was locked. I do not have a key. The other person in my room does not have a key. So I asked the secretary if she had the key. She gave me a handful and said try these. None of them worked, so I went back and she gave me the bin of lost keys. There were close to 100, and she said good luck. I needed more luck because I could not find one that worked. So all of the tests that my PreCalc students have handed in and lock and inaccessible. At least I am not worried about the being lost right now.

One Quarter Down

Today was the last day for the first quarter. That means all the retakes needed to be done by today. This also means I have a lot of grading right now. But not as much as it should have been. All of the more motivated students had everything ready by today, however I still have a good chunk that did not get there act together. Because we are grading by proficiency I will let them take the retest, but they cannot get above a 4 (out of 7) on any skill. from there effort so far, I am not expecting much. So I am still working on that eternal question, how do I motivate the ones who have already checked out?
PreCalc had a test today with a pre-assessment for the next unit. Some were returned blank, some with pictures, none with any prior knowledge of the topic. This means that everything they know on the next test will be a direct result of my teaching (or lack there of).

Going Away

I have two students who are going to be missing the test I am giving tomorrow. One of them told me last week that she would be missing all of this week, and what were we going to do. I have no problem letting her make up the test next week. I had another student talk to me at 3pm today. This was during our flex period, and the school day ends at 3. He said he is going away for the weekend and missing tomorrow. What should he do about the test. I asked when he knew about missing today. He said that he was known for several weeks, but only choose to tell me today. If I did not need to leave right after school I would have made him take the test then and there. It would have taken him until 4:30, but I had somewhere else I needed to be. So I also know of one student who no longer gets the benefit of the doubt for anything. I am currently debating sending an email to his parents. We will see.