Wow!

This has been a crazy six weeks. I think that I have now officially lost my second teaching assistant. I believe she has been let go, although I am not exactly sure of the reason. Nobody tells me anything! So, I've had some more substitutes. Also, this week we had an Instructional Planning Meeting (IPM). I'm including the acronym to emphasize it's importance. This is a meeting that low-performing schools must have to determine what interventions are being put in place to correct the previous shortfalls. It lasts for the entire school day. Many high-level school district personnel and curriculum specialists meet with teachers in various content areas - literacy, math, and science in our case. The meeting is recorded by someone sitting at a computer - kind of like a court reporter. We answered questions about our assessment data and our Campus Improvement Plan (CIP). We gave brief descriptions of what goes on in our classrooms in each of the content areas and specifically what we are doing to reach our subgroups and those students who are performing below grade level. We were all pretty nervous about it, but it actually went pretty well. The district administrative team was very helpful and concerned that we had everything necessary to perform the task at hand. At one point, a huge grasshopper-type beast flew from one of the potted plants, across the room, fluttered around the heads of squealing, squirming teachers and administrators, and landed on the science curriculum specialist. This brought much laughter and lightened the mood considerably. I left the meeting feeling empowered and encouraged.