Stupid Science Book

We have a new science book this year and it sucks for air. The publisher guaranteed that it would be fully aligned with our state standards and, by cutting out all extraneous material, they've done it. However, since the uncut material wasn't edited to account for the excisions, the text is choppy and leaves out information that would be helpful in understanding just what the hell the book is talking about. Additionally, money woes for the district means they bought a stripped down experiment kit (no doubt thinking teachers could purchase the missing items with their personal money) and the least helpful workbook (thin, thin, thin--nothing but test practice and nothing for specific lessons.) Finally, can you imagine my joy today when I discovered that the test for our current chapter had items on it that aren't found in chapter 6? WTH! I had to write yet another test, then write 4 pages (one per lesson) of study guides for the chapter. I'm so sick and tired of writing tests. And study guides. (thanks, EA!) I did try to construct study guides that were less "fill in the blank" and more "Be able to define:". I'm tired of giving the game away just to satisfy Rotney's EA.

On a mean and personal note, I have to admit that when I switched to the old reading series today, I really enjoyed the surprised expression on Rotney's face. Poor kid--I bet he spent all of our three-day weekend memorizing questions for the wrong test. Oopsy!