Everybody loves progress reports

So the big news of the day was that all the teachers found out that progress report grades were due today rather than on Wednesday as the calendar indicated. All the teachers were panicking as the curriculum director tried to get everyone's stuff. Of course, this was only my second day so I didn't have any grades. I asked the curriculum director what I should do about the progress report grades--there were some grades in the computer, but who knows how accurate they were or anything. I said that there were some piles of essays and stuff but none of them had been graded. Her suggestion? Just grade 3 essays per student and give an average grade. By tomorrow morning. When I pointed out that this was not feasible, she lowered it to only 1 essay plus another "smaller" assignment. When the principal heard this plan, she was not amused. Thankfully. I was instructed to send down the piles (and I do literally mean piles) of ungraded work--I think with the intent of having the person who had assigned it grade it. I didn't get anything back by the end of the day though, so I am guessing that I will be spending some quality time tomorrow morning getting whatever grades are available posted. Thankfully I already know how to use the grading program--I can't imagine what a nightmare this would be for someone who doesn't know how to use it. It isn't always an intuitive process!

The teachers have all been really helpful in showing me the ropes. Figuring out the routine when you're supposed to be the one running the show is pretty tiring. The kids were decent today--these were kids I had not met previously. Very chatty, but nothing too onerous! I guess the trick is going to be to keep them structured and busy, which is hard to do for 90 minutes. Plus I don't get a break all afternoon, so that's tough.

I also found out today that we have faculty meetings every Wednesday after school for an hour. That seems excessive to me. I could understand that once a month, but every week? What could we possibly have to talk about for that long that couldn't be done by email? Of course, we don't HAVE an organized email system, so that is probably part of the problem right there. Seriously. I had to set up a Yahoo account for this.