Middle School Registration

Sweltering heat, missing locker key, and quite possibly the worst math textbook ever.

Allison had school registration yesterday.  It can be summed up quite nicely with the sentence above.  Plus, long lines of people.

Admittedly, they did their best to move several hundred 7th graders through the arduous process of paying fees, getting school pictures, printing ID's, getting schedules, buying heart monitor straps, checking out textbooks, and renting locker organizers.  However, it was not without it's hiccups.

First, the pictures were in the small gym in the center of the building.  Yeah - the one with no windows and/or air circulation.  You waited in three lines total - one to get your ID ticket, one to take the pictures, and one to print the ID's after you took the pictures.  I was worried that I had a big sweat mark on my back where I was holding Allison's bag of binders and notebooks.  :-(  It was hot.

Then there was an incredibly long line for buying the $8 required heart monitor strap for gym class.  While I stood in line, I sent Allison on errands to sign off on her handbook and check out the locker organizer rental.  She was not interested in the cross-country team.  Not shocked about that.

We went to pick up her textbooks in the library and then the final stop was her locker.  The only problem was that she has a keyed rather than a combination lock.  There is a long story about this keyed lock, which is not relevant to tell here other than the fact that Allison prefers a keyed lock even though I'd prefer she have a combination lock.  It seems like something that falls squarely into the category of "not worth fighting over."  Instead, I took up arms over her having a backpack without cartoon characters on it.

Anywho... after the two day MS orientation last week, Allison left her key with the science teacher (as she was supposed to), who also seems to be the main coordinator on fact-and-fees day.  So, she was running hither and yon doing a little bit of everything and had no idea where she left the locker keys.  This left us standing in the hallway with a book bag full of binders and notebooks, textbooks, and a wooden locker organizer with no way to access Allison's locker. 

Fortunately, the autism resource teacher let us put the organizer in her room and we made arrangements to come in next week and bring all her school supplies in.  So, we schlepped everything else home, which is when I got the opportunity to take a look at the math textbook.  First off, the series is Grade 6, Grade 7 Accelerated, Grade 8 Algebra.  Why is Grade 7 Accelerated?  What's accelerated about it?  There was no Grade 7 regular option.  That was weird.  And then on top of that, the textbook is just awful.  It's like someone had a field day with crazy fonts and colors.  I mean, if everything is highlighted then how can you FIND the actual important shit?

It should be an interesting year.  Then I got home and Brian reminded me that Allison's IEP actually included textbook book printouts so that she could write on them.  I'd forgotten about that, but in looking at the book, I'm not sure that's even going to be helpful. 

So, this will be an interesting transition.  Allison herself waffles about it.  I think she's excited to be in middle school now, but not thrilled with the whole "going back to school" business.