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Tuesday, September 4, 2012

'Sir Lines' clears an obstacle during the German rabbit-jumping contest. From USA News & World Report ("Rabbits Hop to  Victory in Jumping Contest").

Because this is how I felt today. The program wants me to jump through a lot of hoops. At least I do it in style! Anyway, this morning was a staff meeting. We got the CST scores back. No matter what the results are, it seems like CST scores are usually a bad day. Teachers are evaluated based solely on these scores. Unless you're about 96th percentile (ahem, Spanish), you could get yelled at by your team leader (at the least), to the district office (ouch). Everyone in the science department increased their scores by at least 4-7% (which by the way, is within standard error bars anyway (error bars? what error bars?). Some departments (English and history) went up by 20%.

Anyway, there was a lot of anxiety and tension and disputes between the team leader and different members of the science staff. I didn't like it. I felt like I was a kid again, at home eating dinner with my parents.

Then, the union leader talked about union stuff, which just depressed me. I just don't see how Prop30 will pass. Voters have to agree to a sales and income tax. Albeit very small, I know what voters will do...because I knew what I did before becoming a teacher. I read "tax increase" in the title and checked "Hell, No!" It seems like a hopeless battle. Why would voters raise taxes for education when they haven't done so for 17 years? The consequences will be grim. Furlough days will rise from 5 to 15. Pink slips will go up. Teacher salaries will be cut for the 5th year in a row. Not a good year to be looking for a job in education.

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