How am I supposed to teach…

I’m telling you, it’s insane the amount of things I have to work around. My students have WAY too much stuff to do…I remember when I was in grade school (k-5) PE was once a week, music was once a week, we didn’t even SEE a computer until fourth grade, art was when ever the teacher decided to have art. My kids have PE three times a week for half an hour, music three times a week for half an hour, art once a week for an hour, computer lab once a week for an hour (in addition to the computer time they HAVE to spend in class), recess every day (as if I would give that up…recess is good!), not to mention Math, Writing, Two different types of reading (each takes at least half an hour), spelling, Social Studies, Science, Family Life Education (sex ed for those of us who aren’t current on the PC way to say things) DARE and Guidance. I’m telling you! They keep adding things to the schedules, but they NEVER make the day any longer and they never take away time from an existing program! Now those of you that know me, know that I believe that an education in the fine arts (music, dance, and artistic expression) is a wonderful thing, but COME ON! They want test scores up, but they don’t give enough time to teach…School starts at 8:00 and gets out at 2:20. Out of that whole time (6 hours) I actually only teach about 2-3 hours a day…tell me…does that sound right? I have to fit in ALL of my subject matter into 2-3 hours???

Okay, I feel better. It’s Friday…things will only get better. Family Life Education ends next week and I’ll get some time back….sigh…..