Monday Chat

Hi All, Just checking in. I was a bit out of it for most of the weekend with a cold but I still dragged my sorry a$$ to school on Saturday and had to focus on some work later in the day. Sunday turned into a "no rest for the wicked" day and bwoy I must be the worst person on earth because mi nuh get not an ounce of sleep all day. I had to pick up my son from his aunts house so i was out till about 11:00 last night....grrrrrrr!!! That leads me to another point....SBAs. Most of you would be familiar with old time CXC and GCE O'Level exams. These were taken at the end of 5th form/grade 11. In recent years the examiners have taken notice of the high failure rates even from students who do fairly well in school so they decided to make some of the exam grades school based hence SBA (school based assessment). The Tall One is doing his CXC exams in June so right now he has lots of his SBAs due. This is graded work that the school forwards to CXC for review and it forms a part of his final grades. This SBA has replaced some of the practicals that the kids were required to sit and it also has reduced the number of exams CXC must invigilate. Win win situation you would think...well not quite so. Right now the Tall One is facing issues of compatibility of software with his Information Technology SBA. We tried to save his work down but Access did not allow this option so I had to reformat one of my machines at home nad literally downgrade it to accomodate the software that the school uses. I had to literally go dig up my software package CD for Office 97 and reload it on one of the machines. Then I remembered that I had not purchased an activation for Access 97 so I am in deep doo-doo because he needs this to start his work. Where am I going to get this relic of software at this point? The SBA is supposed to take some of the stress out of the system. All it has done is shifted to elsewhere. I have serious concerns as to the standardization that is required to level this playfield. The school has issues with making the computers available to the children. Whilst they could do it at home (and you are assuming that the majority of them has access to computers at home, which I doubt strongly) there is the issue of compatability, then there is the issue of proper guidance and a standard project across the school system. So instead of focusing on my work I am now given the added task of solving the Tall One's SBA issues as well. The more they try to make it better it seems to just get worse. What to do. Just have to take it in stride and deal with it. Dealing with the Tall One is no easy feat. Those of you with teens will know what I mean. His attitude is that if it doesn't go as planned the first time then forget it. I have to be behind him to get the info to find out the problems and to instruct on possible solutions. Kids today have lost the ability to think beyond the obvious. No creativity or imagination. They have no observation skills. When I finally pulled the compatability issue out of him he could not even remember the coluor of the Word icon that the school's computer has on it so that I could definitely know what I was dealing with. Madness I tell.....arrrrrggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! Try to enjoy your day all.