OK, so I was just playing around with the new Blogger site and I found all of my all posts. I've writtne 37, published 35. Thanks to all of you who have read some, most and especially all. My goodness do I ramble...
One of the posts I came across was my out and out love letter to The Hunger Games and Suzanne Collins. In the posting, I said that I didn't want to teach it because the psychological damage was so haunting. I didn't really change my mind, but my principal urged me to teach it. We had bought a ton of copies so our eighth graders could do it as summer reading before they came into eighth grade. The new eighth grade English teacher didn't like the book and didn't really want to do it. The principal loves the book as much as I do, and she told me to go ahead with it. When I told her how concerned I was about it, she said that she knew I could handle it and that were there any parent phone calls, she would deal with it.
So toward the end of the school year, my seventh graders and I read it together. It was a great experience. We talked a lot about the book and how the government was controlling the population. We talked about reality television and some of the historical links. It was really good. Many of the students, even the ones who "hate" to read went on in the series and wanted to talk about it. It was a pleasant experience. There had been no parent complaints. Nothing. In fact, the parents ran out and read the books just as quickly as their kids did.
I was looking forward to teaching it again this year, and I brought it up at Open House. Several of the parents were thrilled because they had either read the book or had heard of the book. One parent though was not so thrilled. She didn't really think it was appropriate. So now I'm nervous again...
I'm also starting to brainstorm ways of getting more parents involved. Maybe a giant seventh grade book club. Maybe...I don't know what. I'll get there. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Also, if anyone wants to talk about the books, let me know.
Today was a serious screw up at Anna's school. It's frustrating. Anna is on an IEP. During the last school year, Anna attended four half days--Monday through Thursday, 8:10 - 10:40. At the end of the school year, Anna's teacher approached me and asked if I would be willing to get Anna into a full day program so that she would be ready for kindergarten. I thought that was a good idea. Because it was so late in the school year, we had to let things stay as they were and would reconvene the team to make the ammendment to have her go full time--Monday through Thrusday 8:10 - 2:20 and Friday 8:10 - 10:40. Since the teacher Anna had last year retired, she was placed in the teacher's room who does the full day class beginning in September.
The meeting was set to make the changes pretty soon in the school year, but we'd still have to wait about two weeks. No big deal, right? That first Friday, I didn't send her because, legally, she was operating under the initial IEP and she was only getting services for four day. Monday, Anna came home with a note saying that she should have been in school on Friday. So I sent a note back saying that I didn't send her due to the legality. Since the IEP had not changed, I didn't think I could legally send her for time that was not noted in her IEP and Fridays were not part of the original IEP. The teacher replied that Anna SHOULD be in school on Fridays. So I sent her the following Friday. Then we had the meeting and changed the plan. There was a two day holiday at the end of September, so Anna didn't go to school on the Friday between the meeting and when I signed and returned the papers.
I signed and returned the papers on Wednesday, so she would start full day on Tuesday. The teacher reminded our friend Judy who takes care of the kids for us that Tuesday was the day. Judy asked her about today. The teacher said that Anna absolutely could NOT go to school today. I was floored. Why not? Legally, Anna had to be there. I ended up not sending her. I really should have, but the teacher specifically said not to. I had to go to work. I didn't want to send Judy to school with Anna only to have her turned away again. That wouldn't be fair to Judy.
So I called up the school and spoke to the teacher. Of course she was in class when I called and when she was free I would have been in class. I must have sounded desperate or something (or it's because I told the secretary that I was a teacher too and this was my plan period) because the teacher called me right back. She asked why I called...um...duh. Then when I questioned why Anna couldn't come to school, she apologized. She realized when Anna didn't show up to school today that she had made a mistake. Anna should have been in school.
I was pretty angry still. This is the second time the teacher has screwed up Anna's schedule. Second time. The real kicker is this. Today was apple sauce day. They were going to make some apple sauce. I donated the f'ing apples to the class and my daughter was specifically excluded from the event. I hope they all choked on the apple sauce (not really, actually, but you know what I mean).
Anna really wasn't that put out by missing it, and if she was she didn't say anything. She's really been too busy playing cat since I've come home to say that she is angry or sad at having missed apple sauce making. But that's not really the point, is it?
Oooooh! I'm still angry.
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