Skip to main content

Bad Day

Why is that midwinter brings about so many bad days? It must be semester change. I was so prepared for the semester change. I finished my grades early (!) and cleaned off my desk. (a student actually said to me today, "I didn't know that your desk was brown!" and this is her second year in my room).

And then he walked in. THAT student. The one that is going to drive you up the wall and down the other side. The one that makes you serious wonder why you are doing this crap for little pay and even less respect. And seriously, he's the one that makes you realize that really there is no amount of money that would make it worth it.

This is how I will be starting my day for next four months. Dear God, why have you forsaken me and why does the juvenile criminal system keep sending these kids back to our unsuspecting school population.

Add that to overpopulated classes, parents who don't want their child to have any skill interventions and looming budget cuts. Oh, and National Board stuff. Maybe I should try for one of those cushy finance jobs... I couldn't do worse than the current crop of bozos. And I'd get to release all this stress with a nice fully paid trip to Las Vegas.

Comments

R2P2 said…
Hi! I came across your blog in my internet wanderings; I'm looking for other teacher blogs to commiserate with :)

Oh golly the midwinter blues! Stay strong! I don't know when your school lets out but we're under 90 days where I am - the end is in sight! :)

Popular posts from this blog

“They Don’t Get It”

I hear that a lot these days. It used to be mostly from various teens trying to negotiate the drama unfolding in their lives as they wandered into that no-man’s land between adult and child. These days it’s from adults trying to navigate the education scene these days. So many people talking and no one listening. The other day I was reading a post by a blogger I’ve been following for several years. Before there was such a thing as “blogging.” We all know spring is IEP review season. This blogger wrote about his daughter’s. Among the various elements, there was the discussion about the state assessment tests. She did not pass. There was discussion about what this means… and why said student needed to pass this test. Would she be taking a modified test? While reading, all I could think about was what would happen to that child as she entered middle school and high school. A history of not passing the assessment test vs. teachers who will now be evaluated on how many students pass t...

Summer Notes

Books to Read: New Kelly Gallagher   Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions  by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana  Notes for Art: Group Project for the First Day Expectations from group project exit question

The Cruelest Month

I know T.S. Eliot favored April as the most cruel, but we teachers know that May is… even more so these days. Most importantly, it is the final testing month. National ‘assessments, state ‘assessments’, district ‘assessments’, school ‘assessments’… on and on. It’s impossible to actually get anything done. Toss in graduation activities, planning for the upcoming year and the 2011 bonus, lay-offs and transfers, and you have to wonder if it wouldn’t be better to save money by simply shutting down school entirely except for a few test proctors. Meanwhile, there seems an air of hopelessness permeating the education world. Plans to lay-off thousands are coming to fruition. Schools are being closed, despite protests. Charters are increasing where they can whether they should not. Unions have lost a lot ground and teachers are trying to decide if it’s even worth it any more to continue talking about education . ( not that I blame anyone for that, we all have lives to live ) For myself, I...