How ironic that after I wrote about running records, running record disaster struck! Our friends at Teachers College decided that now, when most of us are 95% finished with our running records (meaning that our students are almost all leveled and grouped), would be a good time to inform us that the books we use to do our running records (they are called Bebop books; I have no idea why) are actually leveled wrong themselves.
One of the I books is actually a J. One of the J books is actually a K. One of the K books is actually a P (are you kidding me?!). You can't make this stuff up. Anyway, we got this memo from our literacy coach today that included that dreaded word: Retest. Argh! Today I stayed after school (for the first time, so I absolutely cannot complain) to get myself organized. With all the data I'm trying to collect and manage, I think my 5 classes this year might be harder to keep track of than my 19 classes last year.
Other minor annoyances: I had my schedule all beautifully color-coded and now of course it's changed, so I had to use white-out and now it's ugly; the suspension room schedule was released and my name is indeed on it; and they keep adding kids to my 50 minutes roster without telling me and without providing me with the headphones the kids need to use the computers they're supposing to be using during 50 minutes.
And, it's only Tuesday. But if there's one thing I've learned from last year, it's this: I can handle it!
2 comments:
Amazing! Good to hear other teachers around the city are having the same issue. In addition to being misleveled, the books are ridiculously out of context for the kids. Some of them don't even have a real storyline, like "My Steps." It takes them forever to read and then there is really not a whole lot to retell. Or "Car Wash," it reads like a chant.
I haaaaate Car Wash -- "Wash it! Wash it! Here we go!" But my least favorite of all is Fancy Dance.
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