Is there anything happening on Earth besides science fair right now?

I'm am so bogged down with science fair grading and stressed out kids crying out for help every time they see me. I wish I could run up to my kids and be like, "but I couldn't grade your papers last night because I just didn't get it!!" Or better yet, "I didn't know it was due today!" They seem to think I'll be persuaded by that, so maybe they actually would be.

Science fair is a whole different game for me this year. Since my students all have laptops, there is not issue with typing or being able to access the internet to research. The problems this year are that these kids seem to have no concept whatsoever what research actually is. Like what is source? What's a bibliography? You mean I need to put my research notes in my paper?!? Also, I have far more to grade this year because instead of having like 50% of my students doing the work, I've got more like 80%. This time around, they are real honest-to-goodness papers, too. It's not all just an exercise in identifying variables and hypotheses. They've kind of got that figured out.

The good news is it's almost over. In a week or two, they will be done designing their experiments. At that point, I will invite about 30 of my students to actually conduct their experiments, so that's only 30 papers to grade.

Really what I wanted to post about was my old school, or more to the point, my old principal. There are a couple of inappropriate words that I feel best describe him right now. You may recall that last year in DC, I (or rather my students) won $500 for the school to go towards our non-existent environmental education program for doing so well in the Fairchild Competition at the US Botanic Garden. Knowing that I was leaving that school, I completely set up a series of guest speakers and field trips with the Anacostia Watershed Society. I even picked out dates in October and everything. In June, after school was out, I even went back to school and met with the principal who gave his approval to the plan. Being the principal in charge, his job, and his only job, was to call the Anacostia Watershed Society and give them final approval. All the work was already done.

Well it is now almost November and this principal has been ignoring mine and the Anacostia Watershed Society's emails and not returning my phone calls. I finally got hold of him on the phone today and was promptly given a mountain of attitude since I left this project behind for "others to do" who weren't as "enthusiastic" about it as I was. So, he's either blaming me or his new science teachers as if this has nothing to do with him. I'll have to let you guys know if he ever actually does give my contact information to the new science teachers. Meanwhile, I will be in touch with the US Botanic Garden and the Anacostia Watershed Society.

In other news, my teen mom student that I taught last year and have again this year is not doing well at all. I think there must be something more serious than her baby going on at home because she is missing a lot of school and a lot of her work. She is still showing the same desire to do well as she did last year, even after giving birth, but the follow through is gone. I'm trying to help her out now without invading her privacy, but it's hard when she misses so much school. I'll keep you all updated.

Overall, though, still a great school. My coworkers are fun and dedicated. We hang out with administrators on Friday's after work. I genuinely like 99% of my students. It's awesome.

I'll be posting in a couple weeks I'm sure. Until then - adios!