In School Suspension

In School Suspension (ISS) is Christmas-come-early to beleagured teachers.  Students are assigned to ISS when they have been particularily naughty - like fights, death threats, porn etc.  Often, these same students are the ones that make a teacher's job, well, hell. 

This is the student that won't sit down, won't shut up, won't turn in any work, and probably won't go to the next grade without summer school.

Teachers get notification when students are assigned to ISS and teachers send seat work to be completed while the student serves his/her sentence in ISS.   These ISS notifications are often received with the same glee as a winning lottery ticket.   

Swine Flu Mania

Gotta Love Middle School

No Child Left Behind

As a former classroom teacher, I'm pretty offended that a politician would intimate that I might want to leave a child behind. I want every student to be successful. I want them to be able to read and write and respect the U.S. I want them to be employable with skills and work ethic that gains them a job they are proud of and satisfied with.

What happens then when the child doesn't see the need in moving ahead? For this child, school is just a place to go and hang out with friends. I've met a bunch of them in my 10 years in the school system. As a teacher, parent, and taxpayer, it makes me mad. This child is being handed a free and appropriate education and he refuses to receive it. In fact, he is preventing or hindering others from receiving their free education too because he is such a classroom distraction that the teacher has to spend an inordinate amount of time just keeping control of the classroom.