We had TAKS Night this evening. This is one of two evenings my campus will host this year in order to share information with parents about what their children can expect when it comes time to take the TAKS tests next spring.

Each of the departments had a 20 minute window of time to make their presentation, share strategies that parents can use at home, and answer any questions about the test, test prep, and benchmarks.

Since I don’t really have a particular core area that I am assigned to (I work with all four core subjects), I floated from presentation to presentation. I’ve always had an affinity for the math department since I spent four years teaching math before I transferred to the greatest junior high school on earth to chair the Special Education department.

I hung with the math department for their first and their final presentations. The final presentation started at about 8pm. My math colleagues took time to introduce themselves and, when it came time for my colleague to my left to introduce herself, it went something like this:

“Hi! I’m Lisa Jones and I teach 7th grade math.”

my turn:

“Hi! I’m Lisa Jones and I ….”

Dang!

Nothing like being tired AND standing next to the only other person on the junior high faculty with your same first name.

And so, after the laughter died down, I introduced myself using MY name. Of course, my colleagues had to quiz me and ask if I was sure. I checked my ID and said, “Yep … Alvarado. We’re good.”