Please Read and Follow the Directions

Did you ever have a teacher that tested your ability to follow directions? Gave you a quiz that said in the directions "Write your name at the top of the page, read to the last question, and answer it only." and then the last question said "Draw a picture of anything on this question and wait ten minutes after you finish drawing to turn it in." Then your classmates or you, would be feverishly working because you only had 20 minutes to do a front and back quiz!!!! Just to get to the bottom and realize it was a trick...dang teachers making us follow the directions and making us look like fools when we don't.

I have a guilty pleasure - reading the internet news on my homepage. Sometimes it is cute things, sometimes it is radical things and sometimes it is absolutely rediculous.

Today a feature was a girl who did not get to go to a dance because she had an overdue library book.

My first response was - good for her, she was reading...wonder what it was?

Then I realized she was pitching a fit because she didn't follow directions - she said the school didn't tell her when the book was due, and she spent so much money on a dress, etc.

When you enroll you get a student handbook - this is standard procedure at each and every school, in it states the eligibility rules for various events.

Our school has a policy that if you are on the D and F grade list you can not participate in school functions for the next week - NONE, including sporting events, club activities that take you away for the day (like FCCLA conferences or a Scholar Bowl event), class activities (even senior trip!), and fun things (like Homecoming and Prom)....if you are a Homecoming candidate and your grades slip the last week before homecoming...sorry Charlie- you are out.

This is a well known policy and in my opinion a good one, not every school has it.

In my opinion students need to be taking more responsibility and initiative in their life. Most expect you as a teacher or parent to hand feed them exactly what they need to do and remind them several times - not so in my classroom. If you are absent your paper/notes/what we did for the day gets put in the "Absent Work" folder on the wall by the door and it is your responsibility to get it and turn it in. If you do not I will give you a zero because that is what you earned.

This is not to say that I am a heartless teacher, I will remind students of things to a point. If a child has been gone for many days they get a checklist showing what they are missing and when I expect each paper/notes/project to be turned in. My tests clearly state "Use complete sentences (this includes capital letter, correct grammar and punctuation)". However, if they can not or will not follow directions - they get the grade they earn unless I have made a mistake - which happens more often than I would like.

Okay - I am going to hop down off my soap box.

Grad School

Not sure when I decided that grad school was a good idea but I take it back.

It is not overly difficult, it is just one more thing that I don't have enough time to devote 100% to. Honestly after supper and getting Carly to bed I want to just snuggle on the couch with my husband and watch some NCIS or New Girl. Instead I am up until midnight two or three nights a week trying to write papers and organize my brain.

If I had only taken one class this semester it would probably be better - but it would take me so long to finish. I figure if I take 6 hours a semester and summer I can be done in two and a half years. We shall see.

I do like Emporia State University - the Early Childhood Master's program is pretty great and my adviser is nice, she is also one of the professors I will have throughout so that is extra good.

I hope to not wish I had made a different choice as my professional goal is to teach Child Development as a dual credit course - but to teach dual credit you have to have a masters and be affiliated with a college...sooo....here goes nothing!