IT HAS actually been a good week....

better than many.

I actually liked marching in DC....

Even found myself sec and guessing my decision to depart after May.

Cannot permit myself to do that.Staying at CLMS would not be good for me either professionally or healthfully. I have never seen a place so mismanaged  and overcome with utter chaos. Not once in a third of a century.

It pains me to say it.

It needs better leadership.  Not a personal thing. Just the gruesome truth.

I discovefed, this afternoon, while driving home, that I have finally hit my stride here. that is, I have figured how to deal with the clientele here. April begins in a few days and I have, at long last, sorted things out. Grades seem to be leveling out. I have fewer big problems in the classroom.  I have started to do more hands on science in ALL my classes.

It all came as a jolt to me.

Truly.

Tomorrow will tell a tale. Tomorrow I plan to do "The puffy headed bird legs syndrome" activity, where students determine how much their legs swell when they are subjected to microgravity.

Fact is, I am "dancing with the devil" in trying to do this, but I owe it to the good students and to m myself to try this.

I had another informal observation today, again in my worst class. It matters not.  I'm outa here. My eval matters not, but still, as I believe I said, I don't want to go out on a sour note.  That has happened too many times in my life, in some of the school systems I worked with, and in my military career. In that one, I got non-selected for retention. Funny though..later I was awarded a meritorious service medal.

Don't want to go down swinging this time.

I believe the reason things are finally coming together (in spite of this being the most difficult time of year) is that, at least for now, the constant changes and fluctuations in classes has ceased. It is my firm  belief that all the change and the chaos kept me from establishing any consistent kind of classroom culture. I could not establish a consistent routine or set of expectations when my classroom door was like a revolving door. Kids going in and out, constant confusion, frequent interruptions, recurring doubt about where I was and what I was doing.

Admin at CLMS has no concept of what a middle school should be and how it should operate. None.