Progress Report →[More:] As usual, Mrs. Doohickie is in the middle of turmoil as the school year begins. Nearly three weeks into the year and schedules are just now settling down. The new scheduling software the school district commissioned (instead of buying an off-the-shelf product) is very buggy, not even worthy of being called a beta version but they are required to use it.

It's a pivotal year for the school. If it doesn't get "off the list", they will be shut down, reconstituted, taken over by the state, or some other dire consequence. So naturally, the principal that brought them to the brink of acceptability last year was replaced by the district with a new principal (the fourth in the last five years at the school) who has never administered at the high school level. She brings a bevy of fresh ideas; unfortunately the school doesn't that kind of time. They need to bring up their test scores now.

A bright spot is that she is teaching Advanced Placement World History (as usual), plus a section of Language Center World History (i.e., students in the U.S. for less than two years). She is very excited about this opportunity, both for the challenge of it and for the opportunity to teach students from the Ukraine, Somalia, Tanzania, Burma, Viet Nam and other countries.

So far the school year has been a train wreck, but hopefully things will get better. Soon.