Ready to camp!

Very interesting, Podding' Dr D. You know, we've always held that one of the most important factors in a child's success in our education system is the home environment. The example posed by the parents, the expectation of success, and all those related components of a higher SES home, are contributors to the eventual higher achievement levels. We see it here in the local Trenton schools, where even the charter schools, composed of lower SES populations, have great difficulty in meeting state and national achievement goals. We often ask if that perhaps the money would be better spent providing each student with a 'parent' able to provide an example and some motivation to learn. Although I have been in some high SES homes where a book, magazine or newspaper was not to be found!
Enough soapbox....!
Enjoy your accomplishment

Just came online. dewinterized myself!

AHMEN techntrek, as a non teacher in my small business I have a lot ( I mean a lot ) of teachers and I hear the same story, little (fill in the blank johnny, susie) wont set still, has outbursts, homework lost. etc, I am preaching to the choir, God bless our great teachers, the system needs to eliminate bad teachers and bad politicians from the process. PERIOD.

Yes, that was a terrible scandal with Atlanta Public Schools!  The pressure of standardized testing is not an excuse for cheating, and I don't know how administrators weren't held accountable.  The way that that teachers were caught was through monitoring the number of "erasure" marks.  Statistically, the company that scores the tests knows how much the average student erases on that test.  And when the number of erasure marks was far above the norm,  that threw up red flags and an investigation was started.  Unfortunately, the whole scandal  unfairly affected the credibility of the rest of us who teach in Georgia.

I'm on my way on the 20th of the month. Before then there ARE those things to be done. And I do know how to say NO!