This Weekend

I have an interesting weekend ahead of me.

Tonight I'll have dinner with friends regarding the formation of a "Vitamin B Council". Some children are born with a deficiency in this vitamin, and can have seizures until they are treated with enough Vitamin B. The dinner is to brainstorm ways to promote the awareness of this problem, and share information. I don't know that I'll have a lot to add, but they wanted me to come since I work with children.

Saturday Rose will go to daycare again. I have a hair appointment at 9:30 and then at 1:30 I have a coffee date. I'm kinda excited to meet this guy. He's a collector of coins, die-cast toys, and has 2 parrots for pets. We've talked in email and on the phone. I'm looking forward to it.

Yesterday my grade level met to talk about changes for next year's report card and assessment. Over the past 3 years our county has been implementing the GA Performance Standards (GPS for short). The kindergarten requirements are much more rigorous than in the past. It wouldn't be far off to call it PF - Pre First Grade.

The exciting thing is that our API asked us to individually come up with our ideal kindergarten, in a way that would meet the standards. Not just daily schedule, although that was the most of her point, but since I'd brought up integrating science, social studies, and language arts, she wants me to create a plan for that too. I think she's mostly worried about proving that the students are meeting the language arts standards without having a set time frame "only" for language arts.

It's a huuuuge challenge, but one I know I'm capable of. The school I worked at 5 years ago had a 5 person kindergarten team that created just such a curriculum based on thematic units. Each unit listed the curriculum objectives it met, activities, and reading books on the topic. I don't have to have a pre-made plan of every detail, but I have to be able to do enough to prove that it's possible.

Students would still have to take the unit tests that they take now in math and language arts, tests that are tied to the county-bought textbooks. Why? Because my API has to turn in these scores to her supervisor, and at monthly meetings the results of such are posted up for all to see. Almost like they are taken to task if they don't have their work in. In and of itself, I think that's a harsh, sometimes idiotic method when it comes to kindergarten, but I can see how it's the main way to ensure that student test scores are going up- something we've focused a lot on since GW implemented No Child Left Behind.

I've also started my monthly cycle in the middle of the night. I'll deal with cramps and bathroom trips today, but at least my week of food craziness can end, and I can realize that some of the motivation behind my really bad food choices was hormonal.