Well, bury me in an ant hill and cover my ears with jam, I have neglected my blog. To be honest, I think my mind has turned to jelly since my portfolio review board and all the absolute craziness related to CATS prep at my school. CATS prep at my school has resulted in, what I feel is, a circus atmosphere. So many rewards (read that as bribes) and stuff has the students thinking that school is all but over, and "where is my treat that you owe me for doing what I am supposed to do." What happens now is that the ones that are not successful give up and cop an attitude, created a vicious cycle. Arrrgh!
In sharpening my saw I have had time to reflect on many of my dullard mistakes, and how I would like to change things up in my curriculum next year, assuming I am still there.

- I would like to be more rigorous and demanding. We get the behavior we deserve, whether we're talking academics or just plain behavior. I admit I lowered my expectations quite a bit at the beginning of the year because I had too many teachers, parents, etc. say that I was expecting too much from my kids. "But they're only 6th graders." So what? Problem is, once I got lowered, and accepted less than what I thought they should be able to do, the bar could never really be raised again.

- "If I knew then what I know now." There are just a bunch of things that plain teaching experience has taught me, and I'm talking mostly about a lot of little things, too many to list here. Some of it is classroom management, some of it is teaching method. I'm still getting my sea legs in a sense I suppose.

- I will be better organized and stay on top of some things more next year. Plain and simple, don't let myself get behind and get my rear end painted into a corner.

Enough for tonight.