Thursday, August 05, 2004

Aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhh! --I believe that is the standard English written representation of a cry of frustration--But why didn't I see it coming? Early this summer the ESOL dept. of our school district adopted textbooks for the first time ever. I attended an inservice workshop at which we were presented with the new product. It was thoroughly impressive! It is a totally comprehensive program that is based on all of the most validated research out there on second language learning. Not only that, it includes components such as "test generator" which several textbook companies use now and any teachers that know it know what I'm talking about. Well, that workshop was two months ago. Today we were instructed to come to the central office of our ESOL dept. to pick up our new textbooks. Was I excited. I have taught ESOL without actual textbooks for 9 years. So I arrived to pick up my textbooks, but conspicuously absent were most, I say most, of the core components that go with the text: Teacher's Edition, Teacher Resources (including lesson plans correlated to the standards--you all know that's the big buzzword these days, and answer keys), the test generator,and several other things. So anyway, it's possible, even probable that we will get these things. But it doesn't look like we will have them for the beginning of school on Monday. And it sounds like a case of the person who was put in charge of ordering the material not knowing what they were doing. I pray that the situation will be remedied. Given the history of the school system, I fear the worst (Nope, that's all you're getting. How dare you expect to be given the resources you need to do your job!) Which would be par for the course with APS. I hope I'm wrong. 9:11:19 PM    comment []