The weather has been weird today. We've had a spring storm about every hour or so, for about 10 minutes. It has made working outside a pain in the ass LOL. I got the last of the sunflowers planted and mulched, anyway.
School has been good. Friday was exceptionally good. OGT scores for the high school came back and they were outstanding. We exceeded our indicator of 75% in math with 80% passing. It's the first time ever that the high school has met an indicator, much less surpassed it, much less on the first try!!!!!!
By the end of lunch we had individual scores in my hands and were allowed to tell the students. In my 6th period basic math I only had 58% passing, but of the 7 that didn't pass, 4 of them are 95% behavior/attendance related.
My other basic math class had 85% passing, and my two Algebra 1's were 81% and 82%. I had a total of 15 students not passing (7 in just 6th period) for an overall 75% passing. Below the average? Yes. But some teachers have the AP track and some don't LOL.
I have 9 African American students and 6 passed (2 are in the behavior/attendance category). I have 2 hispanic, one from the Dominican Republic and one from Argentina (ESL, less than 5 years in the country each) and they both passed. 76% of my white students passed. I teach in Appalachia once removed, so the population is largely white.
One girl in my Algebra I class earned an Advanced rating that is well above the rest of her classmates. I'm going to try and get her onto the honors track next year.
Our Department head bought a turtle pie, cheesecake, and a chocolate cake and ice cream for us at lunch and we all got carryout from a local root beer stand. After work we all went to this little hole-in-the-wall bar that I didn't know existed. It doesn't even have a sign anywhere with the name of the place outside. Apparently it's been the "hang-out" for teachers after school for years. Who knew??? Our department head bought drinks and appetizers for everyone. I had two root beers and two cigarettes.
Overall, a good day. It was hard to tell the students who didn't pass. Especially the ones who were sure that they did.
DQ#2 didn't pass. Ironically, I thought she was the most likely to pass out of the 3 (the newest DQ - #4 - was at home with her baby and didn't take the test). She told me "I know I didn't pass, I know it. I didn't did I?" But when I told her she really didn't she looked so defeated. I know it's just her defense mechanism, but if she'd just have more confidence, she could do so much better. I'm surprised her mom hasn't called me yet. She came up to me later in the period and I told her that she had just missed the passing score by a little bit. She said, "So I'm not dumb?" I went on waxing poetic about her capability and she probably had just not gotten enough sleep or whatever. I know that on the test she just looked at a problem, didn't know how to do it and shut down. I wouldn't be surprised if she left multiple choice questions blank. She would have the attitude that it was going to be wrong anyway so why bother marking it. Always convinced that she's wrong, not allowing herself to risk getting it right. Better to give up and fail, than to try and still fail. Then you can maintain the illusion that it's a choice. Oh well...