Monday, Monday

Our house is once again accepting offers, as the one we got last week fell through. We had several people stop in over the last few days and I still have hopes. However, the owners of the other house are planning to rent it out to someone if we can't buy soon. I don't want that to happen! So keep your fingers crossed.

In other news, I had my annual formal evaluation with the AP today. She had many complimentary things to say and rated me in either the "Effective" or "Outstanding" categories across the board, even the places where I thought myself to be only "Developing". Her one suggestion was to have students do more self-reflection on work. She also thought I could use assessments more effectively. I was impressed when she asked me what I thought about assessments (meaning formal, standardized ones) and didn't freak out as I openly declared, "I hate them. They fail to represent the majority of my students accurately and I do a much more thorough job with my informal observations." Nice to know that she trusts me to teach my kids, even if I am doing it outside the District Approved Box.

We start testing on Wednesday, so we are doing lots of review. In order to pass the tests, they need to be able to recognize the vocabulary used when discussing language. Many of them know how to use things like pronouns, adverbs, adjectives, possessives accurately, but freeze up at the terminology. We have gone over these things repeatedly and they still give me the Ten Second Stare when I ask an unexpected question. You can just see their little gears working...

Um, what did she ask? Oh. The possessive. Um. Pooooosseeeeessiiiiiive. Po-ssess-ive. We were just talking about plurals. Are possessives numbers? Plural is more than one. Possessive is less than one? Hmm...possessive. More. Less. No. What is it? Hey. I know that kid who just walked by. I saw him at recess. I think I'll ask Sara to play tetherball at recess. Or maybe not. She cheats. Look. She's cheating now. She's copying down what's on the overhead. Oh. The overhead. What does it say? Ah. Is THAT what a possessive is? I hope Teacher doesn't call on me. I don't like the way her eyes bug out when I don't know what she's talking about.

So damn frustrating. If only I could find a way to be 1/2 as facinating as the stupid television shows and brain-sucking video games (no offense, Mikey!) that they play with instead of studying. Tomorrow, we go over it again. Wish me luck.