Test Scores (and kids) are Dropping in my School

The last two days at school have been pretty eventful. The principal was gone for a convention, so the assistant principals were left to their own devices. At one point one of them got on the PA system and announced: "I would like to thank the majority of students who were in their classes on time today and doing what they were supposed to be doing. However, we had 60 students suspended today, and I want to remind those students that they cannot come back to school until next Tuesday. And Joe Smith, wherever you are. You have just been added to that suspension list. We'll see you next Tuesday."

When I heard this, I cheered. And other teachers told me that they did too. Finally, an AP was taking a stand against the tide of students who are growing more brazen. The school is falling apart, and sometimes I just hide in my class room.

Yesterday, we had some excitement in the math department. A student fell from the ceiling into Julie's classroom. Yes, from the ceiling. She was going along in her lesson, and then suddenly a person's arm and leg were hanging from the ceiling above her. The student had jumped on top of some storage cabinets that we keep in our hallway. Figuring that he could crawl around the school, he climbed onto the ceiling panels. Our school is home to some of the lowest test scores in the state, and this just reinforces that data. How did he think that ceiling panels would hold his weight? There are mice in the building too big for those panels.

We're not sure if the student was high or not. He was running around the school looking for chips and food earlier in the day. He may be one of our more entrepreneurial students who sells food to the masses, or he was jonesing himself. We don't know. But now the teachers are spreading rumors of a huge cache of flamin' hot chee-tos in our ceilings.

So, anytime that I have been asked about my day today, I have responded with, "Any day in which a student doesn't fall into my classroom is a good day in my book."

I don't miss the consulting world at all.