STAR Students?...

This is STAR (Standardized Testing and Reporting) week in all the local schools. This isn’t normally a busy week for substitute teaching assignments as teachers are in class drilling their students to perform well for this California mandated school rating exam.

I did manage a half day (actually just two hours) assignment as Kindergarten aide yesterday. As I’m about to leave, one of the 6th grade girls from last week’s class dropped in during recess time.

She’s been sentenced here for acting up in class today. I was little surprised because she wasn’t part of the gang that was giving me a hard time last week. When I expressed my surprise that she was here instead of “Miss Issippi” or some of the others, she confided that they were in trouble also but doing something else.

As I left the parking lot and rounded the corner bordering the grass fields, I saw the “New Beatles”, “Muppet Guy” and “Miss Issippi” dragging black plastic bags while picking up trash.

They saw me and called out. I waved back as I slowly drove by… with a big grin.