It's been a week since I last posted on here. I haven't because nothing of any import has transpired that could possibly be of interest to anyone...but one of my friends complained, so this is for you, Mike!
I have caught the cold that the rest of my resident family has. It isn't a major deal...just enough to make me cough and blow ugly stuff. My bad ear is stuffy, too... My mother always said, "It's hell to get old." And she wasn't even talking about illness!
I haven't resorted to marking the days until retirement off a calendar yet, but the absence of stress is more and more desirable as the semester goes on. I'm just, in a word, POOPED.
I have friends who work longer hours and longer weeks than I do, but they aren't all on stage chasing hormone-driven students around all day. When I am at school, there is a constant adrenaline rush. It isn't just a matter of teaching; it's all about making sure that no one's sensitivities are insulted. It is reporting a mess in the girls' restroom when someone (two days in a row) threw a used sanitary product against a wall. It is tracking down the truth in a situation where one youngster's book has been missing for months, and another asks "What happens if a kid pays for a lost book and you find out that someone else has it?" And when that same kid reports to a classmate that he saw someone throw away his student ID (and didn't report it to anyone, nor fish it out of the trash), I have to follow up on that, too. Then there is a young lady who reports that the boys in the seats near her are "touching [her] butt" every time she walks by...and someone else calls a classmate or a teacher a "faggot". There is the baby mouse that came out of a locker, only to be stomped on by a student...the banished cell phone that goes off in class...the rampant cheating, and trying to explain to a parent that her kid was cheating when he swears he wasn't...the parents and students who ask if there is any extra credit to bring their grades up (when simply doing the assignments in the first place would help)...getting homework together for an absent student...grading papers and getting the grades on the computer software that parents see...answering parent emails, writing up behavior infractions, making modifications (Response to Intervention) for kids who are failing, attending conferences for special ed. kids or kids who are misbehaving miserably. There is bringing a little extra food from the grocery store for a family with four kids who is down on luck. Oh, yes...and the "no gum" rule... (Our classrooms are carpeted.) And I can honestly report that all of the above have happened in the last 24 hours! I could add more...but you get the drift. IF I can get control of a class at any given time, I MIGHT be able to teach them something!
Tomorrow morning at 7:15, there is a conference with a parent about a youngster that drives me nuts. I'll let you know how that goes. Several of us (teachers) have expressed that we could look the other way if someone in the high school next year decided to "clean his clock"...
When I get home, I start supper, pick up the grandchildren and hope for the best. Do dishes....usually supervise homework or something...and fall into a dead heap.
Meg is the Vacation Queen! Her free time is limited, so she has been working on vacation time for us. Apparently, we will be going somewhere in early June...genealogy, just the two of us...and she has already booked a place for us in Gatlinburg for a long Fourth of July weekend. Her nickel. I can't get excited about it right now. Have to get through the school year, first!
Time for bed. Nightie.
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