End of the three-day weekend. Not much to report. I managed to finish my report cards. After procrastinating for the last couple of weeks, I finished...Late. Having been used to to disorganization of Admin. I (and several other teachers) were expecting to have the report card deadline on Tuesday. Yes, the day of the afternoon Parent/Teacher Conference. Since in the deadline has been due by the P/T day in the past, it was no surprise when there was no announcement of a due day. Unfortunately, I fell into that trap. I should have known better to let my guard down. Anyway, with a posting in the daily bulletin on Thursday that report cards are due on Friday took several teachers by surprise. My plan was to leave early on Thursday, and have the report cards finish. I'm very good with deadlines, train times, etc.... Unfortunately, when the time changes unexpectedly, then I get caught. Either missing the train, or in this case, missing the deadline. I was annoyed with myself more than with admin. However, other teachers seem to have felt that since the due date was so short, then it isn't the teacher's fault that the report cards are not in by the due day. I sort of verbally went along with the group, but inside I was still annoyed with myself more than with admin. After all, the report cards were handed out about 2 weekends ago.

Anyway, I had missed the deadline, so this three-day weekend became my report card avoidance weekend. I had three days to get them done, but I wasted the weekend avoiding them until the last minute. I was also annoyed that I couldn't find my grade book, nor assignments that I did grade that could have help make my grading easier.

After sleeping most of the weekend away, I finally got the cards done. I also managed to finally type in my students names into a grading program that I've used in the past. I finally stopped being a cheapskate and paid for the upgrade from the free CD that I've been using for several years....Big Mistake!!!

The changes to the program either were designed to highlight my stupidity, or just to aggravate me. the new changes now don't allow changes to the reports that are printed. I spent about a half an hour trying to merge a students grades from two separate "classes" into one. The grading program uses a program that isn't Microsoft compatible. It does ask if I want to convert the individual file (each student's saved file), but when I click yes, it converted the report into something unreadable. Now I'm thinking that it might just be easier to do my own grading onto an Excel file. It is a bit annoying to have to print out 38 pages when I only needed 18.

I better end this, tomorrow (now today) is Parent/Teacher Conference. On Friday, after helping "Across the Hall" input her test scores into the computer, and help show her how to access the reading reports for the reading program we use at school, I did not get to clean my classroom. I would have stayed longer -- there were several teachers still in school getting ready for P/T Conf. However, I think Across the Hall was a bit nervous about walking to the train now that it is dark. I'm sure she would have gone if she needed to, but I did tell her that I would be finish by 6PM. Since it was 6PM and I did say that I would be ready, I left my classroom a mess.

I'm hoping I will be able to catch the early MN train. I want copies of my report cards before I hand them it, AP1 can sometimes be forgetful. I also want to print out my homework.


Post Date - Tuesday, November 13, 2007 1:07AM