It’s 7am and I’m starting to freak out about finding something for today. This shouldn’t be happening.
I could still get to some of the elementary schools by 7:15 like I’m supposed to if anything there would actually show up. Nobody would know the difference.
There’s over an hour until the middle and high schools start. Plenty of time for someone to realize they shouldn’t be at work or to have an elementary school child get sick and make them leave, in which case I could go for the rest of the day.
Stupid state testing though. 3rd-8th grade is doing it. It’s not timed, so who knows when people will be done. Besides, you have to be trained to administer the test and I’m not. The teacher doesn’t have the test until right before it’s given. We had to get it delivered from the office yesterday. My wife says they’re probably delivered in an armored car[1]. This will be going on until the 21st.
Oh well, I have 3 weeks worth of school days to get the missing 3.5 days I need. Some of those are half days so it cuts things down a bit. But I don’t want to be there on those days anyway.
- I instantly had visions of armored cars roaming the halls of the middle schools here. Maybe that’s what some of the kids need to behave. [↩]


The Last Week
For all real purposes, this will be the last week of school. I have some days lines up, some days open, and the highest bonus I can get for actually working a lot[1].
All year long I’ve been the phone police, the gum police, the toy police, everything you can think of. At the high school level, I’m thinking I’ll drop that and just let things be. Depending on the class of course, and what they’re doing. There’s no way I’m going to let kids have a phone out during a test, at least not before they turn it in. Same thing with the iPods. At this point in the year, it’s just not worth it. High school kids know how to act, and if they’re not going to behave there’s not much anyone can do about it.
Middle school and elementary school kids, I’m still deciding on them. I don’t like the idea of having different standards for following the rules, especially when the logical part of my brain tells me that I should be easier on kids when they’re younger. Since all of the days I have scheduled already are for high schools there’s a good chance I won’t have to make that decision.
Posted in Commentary