Tuesday, March 20, 2007

English 10C RAFT Assignment

-Spring Break

My Spring Break was a lot of fun but it felt way too short. I didn't do anything really special, I basically hungout with friends. I practically lived at one of my friends' house for a few days and we acted like little kids becasue we colored and watched cartoons!! I must say I got a lot of sleep compared to my 10 full hours during the entire finals week. My favorite part of spring break was when I went to the Minnesota Wild game and we beat Colorado! I think third trimester is going to be a lot of fun ( especially with Nikki and me in the same class!) But I'm definately not looking forward to the research essay.

Sunday, March 4, 2007

Day 3 Tartan Problem

Problem:
Too many kids at Tartan
Evidence:
-Siblings have to share lockers
-a lot of new students aren't even given a locker and have to carry their books to class
-the hallways are totally overcrowded and you're barely even walking so it can be hard to get to class on time
-there aren't enough books for every student so teachers make print-outs of the hmwk assignments in the books
-the classes are twice the size as they used to be. I had 48 kids in my math class last tri.
-there aren't enough desks for every student. some teachers bring in extra chairs and put them against the walls and some kids have to sit on the floor in the front of the room
-not enough room for testing, like the BSTs, so more than half the students sit in the auditorium with a piece of card board on their lap for a desk.
Examine contributing factors:
-bigger class sizes. the freshman, I think, are almost 800
-more open-enrollment students coming to Tartan
-there have been a lot of transfer students the last couple of years
Solution:
We could cut back a little on how many transfer students we let in. There are also a lot of empty walls where we could build more lockers so kids don't have to carry their books. We could get more money from the school board or ask businesses to donate money so we could buy enough supplies for every student.