Next Year Assignment

I'm trying to keep an upbeat mood in this blog but sometimes the educational system makes it hard. I've been trying to keep our school's administration from changing the course sequence in science. They want to switch the current 9th grade Biology/10th grade Physical Science schedule around so that 9th graders will have fresh knowledge of Physical Science material and (hopefully) do better on the FCAT test. This goes along with the "image is everything" concept our school seems to be a fan of. Teaching for the test is nothing new but in the past year we have been pushed more and more in that direction. I have, up to now, managed to avoid that trap and still teach the kids. I pointed out in numerous meetings that swapping the 9th and 10th grade curricula would prove a nightmare from the standpoint of lab materials and teacher assignments. With their usual wisdom the administration paid no attention to my pleas.

Now I find out that next year I am teaching 3 Anatomy courses and 3 Physical Science courses. I've taught Physical Science a couple of times in years past but it is really not my forte. With a day of mixed classes I am going to have to juggle labs for two completely different subjects. Not only that, I found that we are sadly lacking in supplies for physical science. It seems that the physical science teachers have been doing fewer labs than I am accustomed to in my Biology and Anatomy classes. I put in for a ton of supplies, most of which will probably not be approved due to lack of funds. Another bright spot in my day was finding out that they did not even have the new textbook or supplemental text materials ordered so I can preview them over the summer and prepare lesson plans and labs. If I am lucky I will have access to these text materials when I go back this Fall, three days before the kids arrive! I could tell them "I told you so" but what good would it do? I'm not going to worry about it because none of it is in my control.