So most of you know that I teach elementary school music. I figured I could use this as a place to talk about what I do or rant about things that I need to rant about!

August 14, 2014,

This week is pre-planning for school. The students start again on Monday. We had a county-wide elementary music teacher in-service today.

A while ago Florida legislature passed a law stating that teacher salaries would be tied to how well their students perform on tests. For the classroom teachers, they are tied to their student's performance meaning they have about 22 kids that determine their salary. For us, it is much trickier. Right NOW activity teachers salaries will be tied to the school score for academic testing (math, reading, etc...that we really have no part of).

Until next year. We are starting our music end of course exams (and P.E. will have P.E., art will have art, etc). Florida law dictates that I MUST test at least 50% of my students in music end of course exams. My county raised that to 51%. So that means I am going to have to test ALL of my 3rd-6th grade students in music at the end of each year.

The test itself is going to be 40% written and 60% PERFORMANCE. Which means ALL of the students in grades 3-6 will need to be individually recorded as they SING. And they will be assessed on their SINGING.

So those 5th grade boys who think they are too cool for singing? Or the third grader who is too shy about their voice to sing....yep. ALL of them will be recorded. And then how welt hey do is how my salary and my JOB will be determined. So I could potentially lose my job over this if, for one year, I have enough students decide that music is a joke and they are going to tank the exam on purpose. Or if I just have bunch of students who are tone deaf and, no matter how much work I put in, still can't manage to match a pitch.

So stressed and overwhelmed at the moment.

August 15, 2014,

I still have work to do in my class before Monday. So guess who gets to go in tomorrrooooow? XD

I hope it's okay if I respond to your posts here? If not, let me know and I'll have this post deleted.
I know how you feel about the testing. All of our science classes right now are being represented by biology only. Which is ninth grade....their fist year in high school. Our salaries aren't currently tied to it, but school funding and whether or not we get extra requirements from the state are. And we're already and economically disadvantaged school.

And I don't know about you, but professional development is kicking me in the butt, HARD. I'm so exhausted and I have so many things to do!