Our morning commute presently starts at 7:30 AM. My dear, sweet cousin Janeen commutes further than I do and she is in the MIDDLE of the snow belt. We'll be entering the secondary snow belt in the winter and with that and orchestra on Fridays, our leave time will be shifted.
Heavens! There is a HUGE difference between a poorly performing district and one that is excellent rated. Here are some surprises:
1. They practice vocab-lit. Their vocabulary, which is also their spelling words, comes from literature that they will be reading chunks of.
2. The spelling list is from the vocal-lit. This round includes prodigious, supercilious and chivalrous.
3. To our absolute excitement, there is NO Envision Math! That stuff is evil. The math seems more commonsense (for now) and K and M seem pleased.
4. Respect and rules are strongly enforced. They are reasonable, but without flexibility on enforcement. That is good.
5. D.A.R.E. is a once a week program that is already built into the curriculum.
6. They were asked to run for 12 minutes in gym class. K didn't quite make it, but she's working on it.
7. The 6th grade as a whole are learning to play guitar as a part of their curriculum.
8. Dress code is pretty relaxed. She finally started wearing shorts this week. The building has no air conditioning and it is getting rather warm in there.
9. Her art teacher is one of my good customers. They did contour drawing on day one.
10. K has her first e-mail address. School issues an e-mail address to every student. They use the computers in the library and media center.
11. All of their forms and such for the entire district are online. They don't even print report cards!
Thus far, we are pleased with moving K onward. It might be a little bit of a drive, but we're hoping to give her the best that we can.
