Tipping Hats

Our own Ms Jenny wrote a fantastic reflection on AYP celebrations at In Practice.

I am no expert, but it sounds like an essay. Even if it is one paragraph too long.

Year 4 Week 1 Reflection

Stats:
Students: 22
Boys: More then half.
Round face kids with chronic bed head: None, which is very distressing.
Tears: NONE!!! A miracle.
Working computers: 3
Working printers: None in my room.
Puking incidents: 1

This is the first year EVER that one (or more) of the boys did not break down in tears on multiple days. No tears. From anyone. At all. Wow. I could make the argument that the "summer" mellowed me. That after years of tears, I have become a nicer, gentler teacher. That I am more sensitive to the needs of my emotional fragile students, having once been a sensitive student myself.

But who would I be kidding. My two week stint at curriculum development left me cold and angry. Even my stapler stayed away, not willing to take the abuse I would smack it with. Last week was no nonsense, straight lines, and listen to the directions once because I am not repeating them twice. If I was 10, I would have been in tears. But these fourth grades are of stronger stock then I. It will take more then high expectations, stern discipline, and vague, open ended assignments to make these kids tear.

Wow. No tears. I am still flabbergasted.

Potterless

It's 4 pm on July 21st and our copies of Harry Potter have still not arrived. We ordered them from Amazon.com knowing that with two girls under the age of 4 it wasn't possible to be part of the midnight festivities. Having the books delivered to our door seemed like a great solution. And we got the last couple of books in the series this way without any problem. Now however, it's starting to seem like a mistake.
I've managed in the last two weeks to reread the first six books in order to be ready for this historic moment. But the historic moment is passing us by. My parents took both the girls for the day, which should have left us plenty of uninterrupted reading time. Instead, it's left me plenty of time to get work done for the classes I'm taking. I'm trying to be grateful for that, but I'm just bitter. It doesn't help that I keep reading other people's blog posts about getting their copies. Check them out here,here, here and don't miss the one that hurts.

Yes, I do mean books. We order two copies each time so that we don't have to fight over who gets to read it first. Then we pass one copy on to my father when one of us (usually my husband) has finished. Today it looks like we'll be passing my father a copy before one of us has even started reading. At least neither of the girls is old enough to want to read them and need a copy!