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August 6, 2009

Back to School, and Ideas for our Gov.

School started for teachers in my district yesterday and the students come on Monday. We missed the first two days of preplanning due to our governor's asking each district to give us three unpaid furlough days. There will probably be more in the second half of the year.

This of course means that we all had one day to get our rooms ready because today is registration day and all the parents are here wanting to meet teachers and visit classrooms. It's tough, but I suppose it's better than watching a bunch of teachers get fired.

Dear Governor, if you want to save money and become popular instead of save money and have us throw darts at your photo, you should eliminate all unnecessary tests. Leave only those required by the federal NCLB act. Most districts have their own benchmarks anyway and some compelling recent studies show that the high school exit exams are worthless. That would be millions of dollars saved, tons of stress relief on teachers and students alike and you would be the governor that raised graduation rates with a snap of your fingers.

It's something to think about.