Tuesday

31 days.

Remediation day. Yippee-skippee. I have a student in my resource class who, bless his heart, (said with a southern twang, and my hand over my heart) moved here from New York state this fall. He took the regent's exams in NY for several courses - including Earth Science. According to his mom (haven't seen his records) he passed those exams. Evidently, they don't transfer to the Commonwealth. So, he has to take the SOLs for courses he had in NY. Get this - he passed Earth Science, he passed World History, but he has to take the SOLs in these courses before he can graduate in VA. He took Earth Science 2 years ago, and remembers little. In my resource class, he's been reading the Earth Science text, and taking released tests. (and not doing very well on them) His mom asked if he could be put in remediation to better prepare him for the SOL. Not a problem, we are accommodating people. He was put on the other remediation teacher's list about 6 weeks ago. He's made it to remediation TWICE - and one time, he was escorted. He has many excuses - none of which hold water. On Friday, he was called in to the office to explain why he's missing remediation. After spinning his tales, he evidently realized the admin wasn't buying any of it. So, he pulled the "that teacher isn't teaching me anything. Can I be in Mrs. Lowe's remediation instead?" PTB said, "sure, and you can attend after-school detention this Thursday for skipping remediation for the past few weeks." So, he's on my list. This comes under the heading of: be careful what you wish for. I guess he thought I would be a) easier, or 2) more forgiving.

I saw him in the hall before homeroom today, and said "see you in remediation, right?" He looked surprised, said "is that today?", and scurried off to homeroom. He did show up in my class for remediation, looking extremely dejected. As I started reviewing released test items, he said "that's what we were doing in Mrs. ________'s room!" Duh. She and I plan our remediation together in order to ensure we are covering all bases.

Did I mention - 31 days?