On the path....

... towards home.

And let me tell you folks, it's been a long day.

The scheduled finals happened just as planned, and to be honest, I'm thoroughly impressed with the way my students did..... almost a 70% average on the District's final exam. Yes, this sounds ridiculously low, but over the last 4 years this same final has been used, 9th graders among the four high schools have an average of 65%. If my kids get 5% above the average, I must be doing something right... I hope.

I'm certainly not teaching to the test because they'd be getting scores a whole lot higher if I were. It's not like I don't have a copy of it in my planning binder.... I know what they're expected to learn.. and I cover it, as we should per the state's 9th grade standards... but I know that I can still do better and so can my kids.

So I'm happy that they were able to score so well. My Seniors scored a 66% average, which is about 3% higher than my last group of Seniors to go through... Based on talking to another Senior Comp. teacher at school, my kids' scores were about 1% higher than his... so I'm happy. The average on that final has been around 63% over the last few years.

If nothing else, all of my students scored better this year than last year, so it shows that I'm doing better with teaching the skills necessary, although there's still plenty of room to improve.

Of course, after finals, the real trouble began. Since I'm in transit to Indiana, I had high hopes to get out of school before noon so that I could finish packing and the such before heading to the airport around 4. But, as computers tend to do, the one that scans and reports our final grades went down.... keeping me at school with nothing to do on the last day of the semester until around 2:45. I was on the verge of walking out because I didn't know how long I'd have to stay beyond my contracted hours... and I had some more pressing obligations.

But it all worked out.

Spent an hour more than I should've in Phoenix before flying to Vegas for a scheduled 4 hour layover... that turned into 6 hours. The weather on the east coast is screwing me up all the way out here. Our plane is from New York and couldn't get off the ground on time.... so everybody else is pushed back.

I get to Cincinnati in about 4 hours and then get another layover before the little puddle (full of ice, so I hear) jump home.

It's been a long day, but I'm on the path and heading in the right direction. Twelve days of rest will serve me well, since I've kind of worn myself thin with full-time coaching and teaching obligations... since last May.

I'm ready for the break, and luckily enough, my head Wrestling coach gave me the opportunity to spend it away from the team and with family.

So, here I am waiting to see my family, but although it's been a long wait, I know I'll appreciate them more when I see everybody in the morning.

Merry Christmas - remember the reasons behind it!

Until next time...