Today went better. I feel much better. I worked from 7am to 7pm though. However, I got my lesson plans that were due last Monday at 8am. And I had a student show up at 6pm for tutoring that I turned away because I just could not deal and wanted to go home. I feel bad about that, but she said she will come back tomorrow. Hopefully, at 4 not 6. But, my room is nice and ordered. And all the copies made for tomorrow. So I don't have to be in until 7:30.
Advanced placement is kicking my ass. I thought I could get by without the summer professional development in pre ap. Now, I wish I went. The senior AP teacher, thankfully, gave me some books to help me with literary analysis and cloze (close? I haven't got that far in reading it) reading. I was a history major and expected to teach history! How did I get into this? Thank God I read a lot!
The other problem I have is my sophomores. When they were freshmen in pre-AP I, they didn't have to do anything rigorous. I have been having them do about 1 short story a week and asking them to write a "real" paper every 2 weeks. The students think the class is too hard. If they did the work, and handed it in, it would be an easy grade. Not neccessarily an A, but I think representational of their ability. And I grade on improvement.
Science Goddess, I do think about your points about grading and I am in the process of working out a fair system. I want the kids to improve and I want to grade on that improvement. I see grading as a power I have. And I try not to use that power to browbeat the students. I am still working this out.
However, the Sophomores got progress reports for the first two weeks of the new six weeks. And a lot of kids are not passing. But it's because they refuse to do the littlest amount of homework or classwork. I give them time in class to do it and they waste the time. However, I cannot lower expectations. They are not performing at normal 9th grade levels, let alone 10th grade AP levels!!!
Yet, I soldier on, being the bad guy. Being the teacher that they think is mean and hard. However, when they earn an A, they will know they earned an A.