Advisory Sucks

At Kings, Advisory is basically Homeroom. This year, they started having these every other Friday (since we don't have kids tomorrow, they moved it to today). Most teachers have been assigned a group of kids (based on alphabet; mine are 2022s) and every other week, we get together and are supposed to do these stupid activities. This year the focus is "building relationships". I get it...they're trying to make school a safe place for kids; a place they can seek help if needed or whatever. So far, however, it's been a waste of time and today is going to be the worst. I know I need to have a better attitude but these kids are only interested in an extra 1/2 hour to study for a quiz or socialize with the friends they have in Advisory. Today, we're supposed to be making a banner for Homecoming based on school spirit. This will be a two session project and then they'll have each homeroom parade their banner through the hallways and other kids will vote on the best one. Points will be awarded and the winning Advisory will get some sort of "Spirit Shield". And we've been given almost no direction nor told what the points are good for. Stupid. I'm just hoping these kids will be a little hip to putting something together and I won't have to fight too hard to get some cooperation.

Here are my suggestions for Advisory: Don't have them on Fridays or at the end of the week (like today is). See, there are a TON of teachers who, for some stupid reason, like to give tests/quizzes on Friday and so kids are focused on that shit, not sitting in a room with a teacher they don't know who's asking them to fill out some "icebreaker" activity. And maybe every other week is too much. Once a month would be plenty! And maybe group the kids based on something else. For instance, as a special ed teacher who teaches kids who are LOW and need to work on post-secondary skills, maybe my group could be those kids and we work on transition activities for special ed paperwork.

Okay - lets see, what else is going on? Well, like I've mentioned, today is the last day of the week with kids. YAY! The week has been pretty good and fast and considering I haven't been drinking all week, that's saying something! Jim's still feeling good and working hard...trying to make up for missed hours on Monday. Oh, and today I'm doing a "lab" with the kids. We'll see how much of a shit storm that is. They have such a hard time following directions, who knows what we'll end up with (we're testing pH in about 10 different liquids...no battery acids or hydrochloric...just regular stuff like coke and lemon juice). Should be "fun".

Okay - time to get a move on. Jim wants to leave a little earlier today but I want to be gone before then. Happy Thursday! Later!