I just got back from my old school. Every year all of the elementary schools in the district host a little reception so all of the seniors can come back and see their old elementary school teachers. And yes, it makes me feel old! It was great to see how well some of them had done. What was depressing was listening to my friends talk about how bad teaching has gotten. When we moved from the area 5 years ago, there was a lot of stupid assessment and paperwork we had to do that too much time from actually teaching the kids, but it has gotten so much worse it is ridiculous. It makes me sad that they are not able to teach like they know they should be able to--sad for them and the kids. They are doing the best they can, but they are worn out from jumping through so many hoops. On the bright side, my former mentor teacher is moving back into the district to teach 5th grade again, and I am going to go do some lessons with him next year. It will be fun to get to teach a class again--and not have to do any of the junk that goes along with it!!
