Million Dollars

     Sitting here this morning, at my desk, in my class room, and listening to Bare Naked Ladies sing "If I Had a Million Dollars." It's a great song, kind of a catchy tune with some cute verses. A nice thing to listen to in the morning to get one going. Especially on a day like today. It has been a very long week at school. We have been working on our WASC accreditation for almost a year now and they had their visiting committee come this week for 3 days. Popping into class rooms unannounced, having question and answer meetings for the different groups that put the WASC report together. We were supposed to be on our toes. Dress nice, pull out our best lessons, decorate our rooms, be sure to post the standards etc...They probably don't mean to (or maybe they do) but they cause a lot of stress on campus.
     I had my surprise visit first thing Monday morning. We had just finished one of my more interactive lessons, where the kids get really involved, and were settling down to finish reading a story out of our textbooks. Here comes the guy in a suit, walking up my ramp. Drat. He missed the good stuff. He popped in, we went on reading. when my students read out loud I have to be very "present" in the moment because they have low vocabulary skills, and I need to tell them the words they don't know. Because of this, I didn't even get to say hello to the gentleman. We made eye contact, he looked around my room, listened to the kids "popcorn" read (passing the duty from student to student every paragraph or so) for about 7 minutes and then he waved goodbye. Not a highly entertaining visit but it was what it was...reading in an English class.
     So, now they are gone. They had a reading of their report and recommendation yesterday after school. I didn't stay. We always hope for a 6 year accreditation. Last time our test scores were low and we had some issues with Administration which caused us to only get a 3 year accreditation. So, when I am done with this blog I'll go on over to the school e-mail and check to see if they announced good news or so-so news. It would be nice to be able to take a breather for a year or so before we start on the process all over again.
     If I had a million dollars. Hmmmm... that would be nice. Maybe I wouldn't have to put up with the WASC visits. Or maybe I would. Wouldn't it be nice to go to a job every day that you didn't HAVE to go to? If I had a million dollars...