Monday, March 27, 2006

the weaseley ray of sunshine in my terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day.

as you have probably already deduced from the post title, today was not a good day. morning collaboration time was especially horrific this morning. bumbling department chair handed out official class assignments. they are called "official," but they are by no means definite. teachers can make arrangements with one another to switch classes if the switch is agreeable to each; however, because i'm not officially a permanent full-time teacher there yet, i have no say...my spot on the board was labeled "replacement," as i will be replacing a teacher who is retiring. the english hags acknowledged in the beginning that if i want the position, "replacement" is me, so you'd think they'd take that into consideration when changing around my schedule. not so much. only one teacher asked before taking a class from me. the rest just stole and switched, not taking me into consideration. i went from having two new preps and three i'd taught already to having four new preps, one of them being a class beginning for the first time next year.
the poor teacher who is taking the place of my mentor while she is on sabbatical will be teaching for one year and will have six different preps. not only will this teacher be totally overwhelmed, as i'm going to assume it will most likely be a first-year teacher, but the students will suffer. this teacher will barely be able to keep his or her head above water, so how in the world will s/he teach the students anything?
then one of my little delinquents tells me:

d: you know, i took your class because i heard you were a cool teacher, but i don't see what all the hype is about.

me: i refuse to be insulted in my own classroom. go down to the office and let assistant principal bulldog know what you think about me.

that was a good time. then there was the usual bologna: kids messing with computers in the computer lab, kids forgetting homework and begging for an extension despite the fact that i reminded them multiple times on friday, kids calling me a "b****" under their breath because i wouldn't grant said extension, kids spilling bottles of red juice and staining my floor, kids stealing my flag out of my room...the list goes on.

but i had a good teacher moment thanks to one of my weasels (a term i use for my sneaky sixth hour kids). i have a good rapport with this kid. i give him a hard time. he gives me a hard time. but i like him, and i think he likes me. he just makes me laugh because he's so weasely...but he's a good kid. he just likes to try to charm his way out of things and knows it won't work with me. he tries anyway, much to my amusement.
i just enjoy these moments...the moments when you know that maybe they don't think you're totally uncool...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You hav SIX PREPS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Holy cow!

That means six different classes!

My best to you for taking on all that work. Do your best, regardless of the fact you think the kids will suffer. Do what you can, and do what you know. Do what will benefit them and they will not suffer.

M said...

love those moments too. ;)