Snow Days

We've had 8 snow days, including the one yesterday that was supposed to be a make-up day for one of the other snow days. So, actually, we've had 7 snow days and one snow holiday. Three days are "forgiven" because our school days are thirty minutes longer than the state requires. (This actually adds up to way more than 3 days, but 3 days is all they'll give us. They have a "don't ask because we won't tell" policy about this. Of course, "they" is the powers that be.)

So we now have 4 days to make up. And TESTING is JUST AROUND THE CORNER. You can practically SEE IT COMING.

Really, we're all stressed. Our curriculum map is in tatters. I'm so behind in math that I doubt I'll ever catch up and heaven forbid that I don't teach each and every SPI to mastery because my butt is now on the line (see previous post where government screwed teachers by tying evaluations to test scores).

The solution? Not four Saturdays. Not extra days at the end of the year for students because that would be past the almighty TEST DATE. We're going to add 30 more minutes to each school day.

Yikes.

I like this idea and I don't like this idea. I'm afraid my class won't want to have an extra 30 minutes of structured math time (because that's what it has to be--I can show a video and take care of Social Studies, but I can't get them to where they need to be in math without a lot of time on task.)

It's going to mean more planning--dedicated lesson plans for those daily 30 minutes. It's going to require some additional resources. It's going to require that third Diet Mt. Dew. Be still, my caffeinated heart.

I have about 2 weeks to get ready. On your mark, get set, GO!