so the attendance concerns at my school are crazy. i’d say on most days i have about 75% of the students i should have, and the students who are absent are chronically so. there are abolutely no repercussions for absenteeism or tardiness – and i’m not talking running into the class a minute or two after it starts. more like missing the first 40 minutes of an 86 minute class. my regular classroom management style kinda gets thrown out the window when there’s no one behind me.

the kids are good, though. i enjoy them. i smile and have my teachable moments every day, and that’s half the reason i teach to begin with. the students aren’t really the ones that create the challenges for me – more like the environment in which they learn and in which i am to teach. i am all about accountability, but it’s a challenge to hold that torch high without backup.

to view the even bigger picture, i can’t decide if it’s my school that’s really f-ed up, or the system as a whole. if the latter, there’s an amazing sense of david and goliath .