Not a whole lot different from last time— and I’ll point out that thus far I haven’t broken any of the rules of my new reading projects, since RJB’s The Tainted Cup was pre-ordered the second I heard about it several months ago– but you’ll see tomorrow that I’ve done a fair amount of off-shelf reading in February. The one that is edges-out is Elizabeth May’s To Cage a God, which was the first book I got as part of my new Illumicrate subscription. I thought about doing a whole post about the box and didn’t end up doing it; maybe next month. But the book itself is gorgeous.
My wife has been putting up with me for SIXTEEN YEARS, and today is our fourth real anniversary. We are, hopefully, eating dinner somewhere right now, although we are both so Godawful bad at planning important events that as of this exact moment (4:57 PM, seconds after writing my last post) I am still not 100% sure where we are going.
The assessment I had to give this week over the Pythagorean Theorem was not written by me, nor was it written by anyone in my building, and furthermore it was split into four parts for reasons that make sense in a way but I will not be getting into here. My partner teacher and I looked at the fourth test and decided that it was much too difficult and so we decided not to count it as a test grade, but to give it anyway, since, y’know, the Lord High Muckety-Mucks want us to.
I decided to Do Science. Anyone who spends any time around teachers nowadays is fully aware of the common teacher complaint that we’ve never seen such a level of don’t-give-a-shit from our kids than we are lately, and that further the level of inability to notice things, in general, is a big problem.
You, being an adult, have likely already noticed that I wrote the fucking answers for the second assessment– yes, it was only four questions– on the board.
106 8th graders in my class completed that assignment today. 26.4% of them failed the Problem Solving portion of it, a number so close to 27% that I am considering writing John Rogers and asking him to make an addendum to his Crazification Factor. If I add in the number of students who clearly did not notice that the answers were on the board in plan and large letters– and I promise you that board is not in an obscure location in my classroom– but did not out-and-out fail, it rises to 45.3%, which is completely Goddamned insane.
One of these days, someone will figure out a way to separate kids who don’t understand something from those who simply don’t give a shit, and on that day, American education will change radically. Until then, however, I’m going to keep bitching about the notion that my job performance is evaluated by how other people act.
Going through a definite dry spell again, and I apologize for that, but my head’s a mess lately. Last night’s promised Hell Storm fizzled, which I suppose is a good thing, but my students shit the bed on another test again today, making it two tests in a row where I thought they were going in prepared and then they just fell the hell apart. Even my Algebra kids got on my nerves today, and that never happens, and the day just never got any better.
Tomorrow my wife and I celebrate sixteen years of marriage and our fourth anniversary. I wish I was more excited; all I want to do right now is sit in a completely quiet room and stare at a wall for several hours. I need to not walk out of work tomorrow in the same mood I walked out of work in today, because I’m not about to let a bunch of dumbasses fuck up my anniversary.
Oh, and for tomorrow’s assessment (yes, there’s another tomorrow; long story) I’m literally going to put the answers prominently on the board and see if anyone notices. They won’t. Noticing appears to be by and large beyond this group’s capabilities. Especially when the things I want them to notice are hidden in words.
It was 72 degrees today, and it is not yet March, and we’re all definitely going to die because of that, but because I live in Indiana, in the next twelve hours we are expecting high winds, tornadoes, rain, snow, a fifty-degree temperature drop, and hail.
we don’t have alligators we don’t have hurricanes we don’t have earthquakes we don’t have alligators we don’t have hurricanes we don’t have earthquakes we don’t have alligators we don’t have hurricanes we don’t have earthquakes we don’t have alligators we don’t have hurricanes we don’t have earthquakes we don’t have alligators we don’t have hurricanes we don’t have earthquakes we don’t have alligators we don’t have hurricanes we don’t have earthquakes we don’t have alligators we don’t have hurricanes we don’t have earthquakes we don’t have alligators we don’t have hurricanes we don’t have earthquakes we don’t have alligators we don’t have hurricanes we don’t have earthquakes we don’t have alligators we don’t have hurricanes we don’t have earthquakes we don’t have alligators we don’t have hurricanes we don’t have earthquakes we don’t have alligators we don’t have hurricanes we don’t have earthquakes we don’t have alligators we don’t have hurricanes we don’t have earthquakes we don’t have alligators we don’t have hurricanes we don’t have earthquakes we don’t have alligators we don’t have hurricanes we don’t have earthquakes we don’t have alligators we don’t have hurricanes we don’t have earthquakes
The highlight of my day involved replacing a malfunctioning switch on my sectional, a feat that I was able to accomplish without swearing even once. We are not going to mention that this is a task that could be performed by a talented child. Just be proud of me, dammit.
Other than that, I’ve been reading and playing games. You?
Those three lines of Arabic are what you get when you click “Show Hint.” They are not what you need the hint for. Needless to say, I can’t translate a word of that. I can’t even sight-read it. That is not a hint, Goddammit.
You may recall– it has only been a couple of days, after all– that it was blazingly hot in my classroom all week, and that I actually wore shorts to work one day this week.
I woke up this morning and was greeted with this:
A lot of that has melted off already, but from what I’m seeing in the weather forecast we are due for 68 degrees on Tuesday and then at least a chance of additional snow on Wednesday. I don’t know who the hell was responsible for proofreading 2024 but someone deserves a Goddamn refund.
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