Crisis number two dealt with trouble in the computer lab. One student said she wished she could download Kazaa onto her computer in the lab so she could listen to music while she worked. Another said she could.

If you're unfamilar with operating systems, XP is the Windows operating system for networks. Different users can be set up with two different access levels... one is "computer administrator" which allows you to do about anything you want, including dowloading programs from the Internet, and the other is "limited," which doesn't let you download. Students at The Academy have assigned seats in the computer lab so they can log in as their user and save files on which they're working for school.

The first student said she tried to download Kazaa, but the network wouldn't let her. The second went to her email and pulled up a letter from a former student there who was given the "teacher" user password by one of the teachers who was replaced over the holiday break. Three of my four students then logged into their computers as "teacher," and with the administrative access changed their own accounts to "computer administrator" access as well. Then, under their own user names, were able to download Kazaa and a couple instant messaging programs.

When I learned about what happened, I let the rest of the staff know and the teacher user password was changed. Then I went into each of the other computers in the lab to change the students' access back to "limited," and deleted the programs they'd installed. Their computer priveleges have been suspended for a week by Jody and Beth.

You may wonder, Dear Reader, why I seemed so laid-back in Holmen, yet laid the hammer down on this one. The answer is simple. The things I let slide in Holmen were bullshit... no one is ever going to get fired from a job for going off company property to lunch, or for "decorating" someone's workspace (with toilet paper) as a prank, or for giving someone a ride home after work... but a person can and would be fired from a job if he or she did what these three students did. Also, any Holmen student would tell you the worst thing you can do in my class is to not pay attention, either by falling asleep or by talking out loud while I'm trying to teach. It ticks me off and gets chalk thrown at you. If these students want to download music at home, I don't care. But if they've got headphones on while I'm covering material? No way.

Crisis number three was a curriculum issue. Before the eighth graders started this year, they were given a placement test to see what level of math should be taught. Each tested into the Pre-Algebra level, what you'd normally suspect for that grade. One was bored with the material and asked to work in Algebra I and was given permission. Two others followed suit, one catching up to where her best friend was ahead, the other taking a slower pace. The fourth was doing still doing lessons in Pre-Algebra my first week there, but after a discussion between her parents and me she began working in Algebra as well. So earlier this week I had four students working independently in math at three different spots in the book.