Another New School year

Hard to believe its that time again. Each year brings so many new challenges and opportunities. It seems teaching gets harder all the time, and not just because our students have more behavioral needs. That's difficult enough granted,  but school administrators seem more out of touch than ever before. Testing results drive everything..including common sense. As a special educator I see the fear in the general education teachers faces and it makes me feel sad for what they are being asked to do. Does anyone remember when each new year brought excitement and joy to these teachers as they embarked upon another year of teaching their beloved students? Creativity, the arts,  in some places recess...things of the past. Our teachers are subjected to evaluations that will include 40% of student testing results with, and this is really crazy, not only their own students, but second language students who only receive 1/2 day of instruction from them, but also special education students who receive ZERO instruction from them! My thoughts and prayers go out to them as they begin this school year. I hope the general public will realize what is on the line here....and carefully choose their administrators in the future.