relief

Oh, George W. Bush. I have defended you for a number of things through the years. And trust me, the opportunities to do that come up more often than you'd like to know. But, please know that your "No Child Left Behind" legislation has taken a lot of the fun away from teaching. I completely understand the need for teacher accountability. When I think of my 7th grade Texas History teacher, Coach Hodgson, I get fired up. The man would literally prop his legs up on his desk and read the sports page everyday while we just sat there. Now, he would occasionally turn the VCR on and show us various movies on the Alamo. And let's not forget that month we spent watching "Lonesome Dove" and "Dirty Dancing" (was that story set in Texas????). But I digress....

While I think that teachers need a standard to ascribe to, I don't like that everything within the school year revolves around the TAKS test. I literally had nightmares this year about it. Would my kids be retained because they didn't pass? Would I get my teaching certificate revoked because of a testing 'irregularity'? Would I read the standardized directions incorrectly and mess the kids up all together? Oy! So much sleep was lost.

Well, I am happy to inform you that today I learned all but 4 of my 66 math kiddos passed the TAKS. Not too shabby. After what will go down as one of my worst years as a teacher for all sorts of reasons, I feel vindicated that the majority of my students learned enough math to satisfy the state of Texas. It was the result of hard work, early morning tutorials, and a lot of prayer.

I still hate NCLB, but I will bask in these newly acquired results for a little while longer.