I've already picked out the spot on the wall in my classroom where I will bang my head tomorrow.

Beginning of the third week and I am ready to explode with frustration. It gets harder and harder to be positive. Change sucks.

On a lighter note, I spent 20 minutes explaining to a parent today that we couldn't provide a bus for his daughter because - wait for this cause it's good - they live RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from the school. :banghead:

Then after school I had decided to stay and get some work done until my phone rang and a parent - and not of one of my students - screamed and cursed at me and threatened to sue the superintendent. I gave her his number, told her to call him and hung up. Then I grabbed my keys and went home.

I'm wishing I had the guts to never go back.

Did I mention I bought a new car last weekend? Now I can't afford to retire. Maybe I should offer to pick up that kid who lives across the street. :)

I can't tell you how many times I crawled off the floor after a particularly grueling 12 hour shift and vowed never to go back, so I know just how you feel. It's getting worse, too, people feeling they've been given some sort of permission to get mean and spiteful just for the fun it gives them.

Drop kicking the screamer was the best thing you could have done, IMO. It's just too bad it had to be done over the phone instead of with the imprint of the front third of your right shoe on her arse.

That has to be one of the most insane conversations I have ever had with a parent.

The screamer had a legitimate reason to be pissed off. She just wasn't handling frustration well today. LOL

couldn't you send a cab for her instead?

"Bus? Yes, of COURSE we provide a bus for your child. You didn't get the letter? I'm so sorry. I'll personally bring you a copy, with a map showing the assigned bus stop for (child's name.)"

Then take a copy of whatever "your child must be ready for the bus by blah-blah, the rules are blah-blah" letter, along with a map showing the very nearest possible bus stop for the kid. Which will be, what, at least half a mile away from the school?

Smiling nicely all the time, of course. And if they complain, boot them upstairs with an oh-so-innocent look.

helpfully,
Bright

I mean it. In this dysfunctional society how can teacher be expected to do the impossible?

The school system here won't. At least not at where we live. They will pick him up at where we USED to live but not at where we live NOW.

I called the office that arranges bussing to tell them they had made a mistake. They told me I had to arrange for a "change of address" thru the CSE. I told them I had done that already, back in May when we moved and that he had hod gotten picked up and dropped off at our new address in May and June of last year and asked if they COULD PLEASE JUST FIX THE ADDRESS.

No. They can't do it from their office. Someone from CSE has to call some Directorofsomethingorother in yet ANOTHER office to "authorize "the change. I told them WE DID ALL THAT ALREADY last May. They said it doesn't matter I have to do it again.

So tomorrow... after driving my son to where we USED to live but no longer live to catch the bus to school, i have to start calling CSE on my preps and wait (and HOPE) for someone to call me back.

I'm beginning to think it'll be easier if I just buy back the apartment I sold last year and move again so I don't have to deal with the education bureaucracy.

5 days of school right? 5 days.

Ok so 8, count em' 8, parents wanted before school meetings in what was supposed to be PD and work time. Did I mention that of those 8 families, I and staff had met with them all the last two weeks of school to plan for this year?

Now, 10th grade student, no credits because no attendance during 9th grade. Parent upset that he can't play football this year. Duh.

3 meetings to plan for the programming of a CI child. 5 days into school and parent wants an observation and another meeting. Meetingorama.

4 requests for special education evaluations. More meetings....

Fight at HS

Special busing for two students...wait for it...because one has a PPO against the other for off campus conflicts

2nd grader--kicking, hitting, biting the Principal. Mental health issues and school wants to help the child by reducing schedule, parent refuses. Duh.

I could go on but really what's the point. We're all edu terrorists anyway in the eyes of the public.

Thank you Master Duncan.

A backhoe from the construction in the cafeteria next door tried to come through our wall today, we've had most of our power shut off and had to plead to have power run to the kiln and wheels so we can function as a ceramics class (we were on the same grid as the cafeteria). Our heater has been shut off for the semester, and there is a constant sound of jack-hammering and other weird noises from right next door. A large crack appeared in the entire wall during class, causing the students to freak out. The construction knocked out another power line and my computer went down in mid-class. Then there is the overall smell of old dust and grinding metal. This was all supposed to get done over the summer, but of course, it didn't. The principals are hiding up in the offices.

But no one has screamed at me. Yet.

I spent two rotten years teaching art in a module (half a trailer) during construction of our totally rebuilt building. Working through construction is just awful.

What really sucked was after all the aggravation and inconvenience, I only got to teach in the new building for a couple of months before being transferred.

At least we are still in our room. Next semester (hah, we'll see, but that's what they tell us) we move into a new classroom we helped design so that will be nice, but sneezing out drywall dust in the meantime is going to be challenging. I'm hoping we have some nice days of weather and I can let the kids work outside. Of course, that means they'll track clay out on the grounds and the maintenance guys won't like it, but we are going to need a break soon.

It's been mostly great.

But...I did get the parent phone call.

I'm not the teacher that assigned detention. I'm not the author of the detention policy. I just got assigned to do detention duty yesterday because the person who usually does it had a meeting.

So I did a ten-minute detention for those students whose teachers sent them. About 5 students.

As I was heading out the door, I got an irate call from one of those student's mom. She was furious about the detention. How DARE I? She ranted for 5 minutes. I never got a word in edgewise. I didn't bother to try to explain that I didn't assign the detention, that I wasn't the author of the policy or the system...I simply let her rant until she wound down.

Finally, she said, "WELL. I will make sure that my daughter NEVER does that again, so she NEVER ends up in detention in YOUR room again."

I finally said something. I said, "Okay." Cheerfully.

Then she said, "Have a nice day." I said, "You, too." Cheerfully.

about you as a teacher. . .

and it's all good. :hi:

Parents don't usually hassle the traveling art teacher! LOL
My schedule is a killer, but hey, only 168 more days!

We did have a custody battle spill over into bus duty, but it was more of a soap opera. The mom (just out of jail) showed up at school with a folder full of legal papers. The dad (on the phone) insisted he still had custody. No administrators there, of course. The SECRETARY told us to put the kids on the bus and let them (parents) figure it out when they get off the bus! The bus driver was all upset, but we had no authority to keep the kids at school. We had already held the bus about 15 min. (on a Friday yet) and there were about 30 antsy kids sitting on it while these nut cases were working out their personal drama.

My days are the busiest I've had in many years! I have two middle school grade levels and 6 autistic students, a couple emotionally impaired and the rest are specific learning disabled students. I have as many students as the law will allow and one of the hours I have them all in my room at once!

So, I love teaching the Autistic students because I happen to see them as simply more honest than almost anyone I have ever known. There is no button on these kids that says, "maybe I shouldn't say that". Since I have been accused of having that same problem, perhaps I see where they are coming more clearly. One guy was sitting in the hall, obviously waiting to go home. I had heard his talk with a couple of students who walked by, so I knew what I would hear when I asked, "How are you doing?" He related to me that he thought he had vomit in his mouth, told me what it tasted like, (hot dogs or Cheerios, he wasn't sure) and what his bowel movement looked like. Now I had heard him tell other students this which elicited the expected "gross", "sick", and I knew this was my teachable moment. I sat down and told him that when people ask you how you are and they are not your parents or your doctor, they usually are expecting something like, "ok", or "I'm not feeling too well". He thought sincerely and said, "really? ok, I'll try that". I think he really didn't know or understand that nuance of language. He did go home, but came back later and didn't mention it again. These kids are an adventure every day and I have to say they are a lot of fun too.

In the past we had a true middle school with teams for each grade level. There was time for collaboration and flexibility to program for all the kids. We gave all of that up due to budget problems and we are now a Junior High School and we go into our rooms and teach the subjects we are assigned. That is the worst thing to see, the great ideas being abandoned because of money. I know everyone is in the same boat.

Three of them belong in a more intensive program in a different building but their parents don't want them moved. I don't anticipate a good outcome for them. Sad.

I have the largest caseload I have ever had. And I've been doing this nearly 20 years. Usually I start with low numbers and get more kids as the year progresses and referrals are processed. Last year at this time I had 10 kids; as of today I have 20. It will be impossible to work one on one with any of them.

We had a little girl kidnapped by her non custodial father about 25 - 30 years ago. Still gives me the chills when I think of it. She was in 1st grade. The dad came to the office and claimed she had a doctor's appt and he needed to take her out of school. So they paged her to the office and as soon as she saw her dad she started screaming. He said she was afraid of the doctor. And he walked out the door with her. The secretary thought it seemed fishy so she called the mom and mom had changed her phone number and hadn't told the school. About an hour later, Mom called school screaming and claimed she had a court order but Mom had not bothered to give the school a copy. So we had no idea we shouldn't let Dad have the little girl.

This was in the fall. At the end of the year, the little girl was still missing. I never did find out what happened to her. But I can still hear that little girl scream. :cry:

My first week and a half has been like a dream. I'm teaching a subject I love to kids who (mostly) seem to like it, too. The number of "learning targets" is sane and manageable—only six, as opposed to the 54 the Humanities teachers have. And none of my kids has acted up worth mentioning! (So far, of course. My pessimistic side keeps wondering when the other shoe will drop.)

Oh, we did have a bus fiasco the third day of school, and we had to corral all the students into the cafeteria until each bus arrived. Luckily, by then, most of them knew which bus they were supposed to ride, so they left to board when the numbers were called. Still, nearly 1000 kids in an enclosed space, however large, is never a good idea. We lucked out that they didn't reach adolescent critical mass!