Friday

I'm contemplating putting in an application in another school district. My friend was recently hired as an assistant principal there, and she loves to tell me about how great the teachers in her school have it...45 minute prep. periods every day, with an extra 30 minutes on top of that once a week...grade-level planning time, a killer union, small classes...the list goes on.

The problem is, I'm really invested in the district where I work now. It's a semi-urban district (frighteningly inner-city compared to the district I'm thinking of), and I can't quite imagine teaching a different population of kids. I've been in the district for four years now, and I'm begining to establish myself as something of a go-to-gal...I'm on some pretty important committees, and I've recently been asked to train as a mentor-teacher...so's I can mold the impressionable minds of newly-hired teachers in addition to the 24 impressionable minds already under my sway. It would be tough to start from scratch in a new place.

But.

Our school is labeled as failing under No Child Left Behind standards. As a result, the administration is constantly flailing about, trying to find ways to prove that we're doing all we can to get back in the good graces of the federal government: new language arts program: check; new math curriculum: check; newly-created supervisory positions for folks specially trained to harass classroom teachers: check and check; standardized testing: check...check...check...and check. The straw that is currently threatening to break this camel's back, though is a step past standardized testing: standardized teaching. Our ILA and math programs are very close to scripted, but not quite. They dictate what we'll teach, when we'll teach it, and how...but they don't go as far as other programs and actually spell out what words to use when we do it. Recently, our district decided to take on the task of telling us what words they'd like us to use, issuing "comprehension support questions," with explicit "rationals" for "think-a-louds" to use when discussing these questions with our students.

think-a-louds.

Now, I'm as hyphen-happy as the next person, but I don't think I've ever gone so far as to bcome hypehen -h-appy.

I don't think I'd mind so much if they weren't so bad at it.

I feel that I think-a-loud just fine on my own.

Sometimes, though, I must admit, I think-a-quiet.