they would all bring flip flops to my gatherings...
I'm an official flip-flopper...
Yep, I'm back to debating about sticking out the rest of the teaching school year... after an hour and a half conversation with my principal last Tuesday and a million other minor details... (I actually got a handful of Christmas cards from my students and a jar of homemade apple butter too! :-) )
I'm going to leave it all on the table for now and decide after the first of the year...
Now to enjoy the next 2 weeks at home with Nolan and Sandi!
Nolan has a few flights scheduled over the break (he is clipping along with his flights and simulators and is well ahead of his fellow API classmates... he will be done with primary before we know it!), as well as a 12 hour duty Christmas Eve, but other than that we will be hanging out in warm weathered Florida...
Take care and God Bless! Merry Christmas to all!
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Free At Last...
"Free at last; free at last; thank God Almighty (I am) free at last.”
Well, very soon, I will be anyway... and that means a whole lot!
I will no longer have "Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad (EVERY)Days" because I am done. I am asking to be released from my teaching contract (that I have asked for a copy of, but they tell me I will get one in February...) and I can't be more excited! So many things have taken place over the past month, and they have all confirmed that this truly is the very best move for so many reasons. I can't wait to hand my letter of resignation to the principal, turn around, and skip out to my car!
January 18th is my big day. The end of the 2nd 9 weeks is January 15th and it would just be wierd having my last day be a Tuesday, so ya... while most are counting down the days until the Christmas break, I am counting down the days that I have to return to such a miserable place.
Here is what has happened THIS week...
Monday
4th period
3 girls, who are by no means 1st offenders, decide that my class is a great time to scream and holler at each other before we go to lunch, and then on our way back, they add the physical side of the issue... one shoulder butts another to try to get her to fight, she backs down some and others pull the instigator away... all the while, I'm just watching, because I am not going to get in the middle of these wack-o-s. We make it back to the classroom and the fun begins again; screaming and hollering, about what, I have no idea, I send one in the hallway... the chaos continues, no one wants to listen to me, so I resort to calling the "disciplinarinan" Dean because the control I was trying to gain is a total loss... The conversation goes something like this:
Me - Hi this is Mrs. Dean in Room 619, I have three female students who are disrupting my class so much that it is impossible for me to start my class. They are continuing an issue that has been going on for a week now... What do you suggest?
Dean - Have they gone to guidance.
Me - (I think to myself) ARE YOU KIDDING ME? That is NOT the right answer MR - How 'bout you get your butt down here and help me!? I say - Sir, they have been to guidance and I just told the guidance counselor during lunch that they were having problems with each other again and he has done nothing.
Dean - Okay... well who are the girls
Me - (I think to myself) DOES IT MATTER? I am in crisis here, what is your major malfunction - GET DOWN HERE! I say - the girls names and he acknowledges that he indeed knows who they are (DUH - the trouble makers at this school haven't changed overnight!)
Dean - Okay I'll be right there.
Me - Okay.
I proceed to wait for an enternity for him to show up, even though he is only one building over...
He walks in and asks who the girls are, and that he will take them while I write the referrals.
I feverishly write 3 referrals and have my ESE teacher deliver them to the Dean's office...
Here is where it gets good...
In about 20 minutes, all 3 girls are back in my classroom!
I wanted to walk out then and there.
Did they behave/stay absolutely silent when they came back; of course not. Obviously it was okay to disrupt /instigate a fight in my room. UNbelievable. I learned right then and there, that I have no chance, simply because I have no support.
Fast forward to today - Thursday
One of the girls, K, that was suspended for one day for shoulder butting the one girl to get her to fight her, she, K, totally beat the crap out of the girl, S, who has been causing drama with for over a week now. I have sent S to guidance to share her concerns (that seems to be the answer to everything at this school - the guidance office). I have also told S to stay away from this girl b/c I really have my hands tied if I don't hear or see any of the stuff S tells me that K is doing... S walks at the back of our lunch line, sits on the other side of the classroom, etc and still she totally gets beat up.
It gets better (but really I mean totally disgusting)
Get this... K beats up S before 4th period and by 6th period she is back in the hallways bragging about the butt kicking she did a few hours ago... UNbelievable. She did get a 10 day suspension, but shouldn't she be sitting in the office for the rest of the day?!
Later in 4th period... I simply ask a girl to sit "in it not on it" in a normal tone of voice, she FLIPS OUT! Yelling across the room at me, "MAN, GEEZ, why you always gotta be on me, I hate this class, I'm gonna bring my momma up here, gawsh dang, etc." To which I can't resist a not so good response in a somewhat hacked voice, "Please do bring your mom up here, I have wanted to talk to her for quite some time; you keep saying that, but I have yet to meet her..." She of course is like whatever. I called home spoke with her aunt, and shared the fact that this child has verbally abused me for no reason for the past few days. I'm sure she will improve for a day or so and then be back to the same crap.
6th period today
One of my least favorite boy student tells a girl (and the entire class because a normal tone is impossible- I'm even starting to lose my ability to speak in a normal tone of voice, by the end of the day) that so and so (insert really nasty comment that a 6th grader shouldn't know about) to her last night. I about FELL OVER. I didn't know what to say and the entire classroom knew it. I glared at him, trying to figure out if I just heard what I thought I did and what do I say now?! I didn't come up with much, but "referral" was in the sentence...
When I call home to let whomever know what he said, the abuse that I suffer all day, began again... She didn't think that what he said was very surprising to come out of a 6th graders mouth, she had heard 3 yr olds say worse... Oh just flippin' fantastic! AND the fact that WHY do his teachers always call for petty stuff, never about the fights he gets into, until after the fact (well that is usually how that goes, but whatever) I stated that I was calling about a less than petty event, and she yells at me "Don't interrupt me, I wasn't done talking!" "His teacher's call b/c he won't be quiet or stop disrupting... well they are the teacher, they get paid to do that, not call me at work to tell me about it! I can't just come up there and make him be quiet."
My blood pressure went through the roof! ( I checked it about 25 min after this phone call and I have a record folks - 154/98 my average as of late is 144/90 )
Long story short, I was BAWLING to my friend Allie, before I even left the building... I can't make any kind of difference in this school, so I am now going to make a difference in my own life, as well as my marriage... it is time to move on and focus on what really is important... the absolute love of my life, my friends and family, and not to mention my health...
It's going to be a great 2008! :-)
Well, very soon, I will be anyway... and that means a whole lot!
I will no longer have "Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad (EVERY)Days" because I am done. I am asking to be released from my teaching contract (that I have asked for a copy of, but they tell me I will get one in February...) and I can't be more excited! So many things have taken place over the past month, and they have all confirmed that this truly is the very best move for so many reasons. I can't wait to hand my letter of resignation to the principal, turn around, and skip out to my car!
January 18th is my big day. The end of the 2nd 9 weeks is January 15th and it would just be wierd having my last day be a Tuesday, so ya... while most are counting down the days until the Christmas break, I am counting down the days that I have to return to such a miserable place.
Here is what has happened THIS week...
Monday
4th period
3 girls, who are by no means 1st offenders, decide that my class is a great time to scream and holler at each other before we go to lunch, and then on our way back, they add the physical side of the issue... one shoulder butts another to try to get her to fight, she backs down some and others pull the instigator away... all the while, I'm just watching, because I am not going to get in the middle of these wack-o-s. We make it back to the classroom and the fun begins again; screaming and hollering, about what, I have no idea, I send one in the hallway... the chaos continues, no one wants to listen to me, so I resort to calling the "disciplinarinan" Dean because the control I was trying to gain is a total loss... The conversation goes something like this:
Me - Hi this is Mrs. Dean in Room 619, I have three female students who are disrupting my class so much that it is impossible for me to start my class. They are continuing an issue that has been going on for a week now... What do you suggest?
Dean - Have they gone to guidance.
Me - (I think to myself) ARE YOU KIDDING ME? That is NOT the right answer MR - How 'bout you get your butt down here and help me!? I say - Sir, they have been to guidance and I just told the guidance counselor during lunch that they were having problems with each other again and he has done nothing.
Dean - Okay... well who are the girls
Me - (I think to myself) DOES IT MATTER? I am in crisis here, what is your major malfunction - GET DOWN HERE! I say - the girls names and he acknowledges that he indeed knows who they are (DUH - the trouble makers at this school haven't changed overnight!)
Dean - Okay I'll be right there.
Me - Okay.
I proceed to wait for an enternity for him to show up, even though he is only one building over...
He walks in and asks who the girls are, and that he will take them while I write the referrals.
I feverishly write 3 referrals and have my ESE teacher deliver them to the Dean's office...
Here is where it gets good...
In about 20 minutes, all 3 girls are back in my classroom!
I wanted to walk out then and there.
Did they behave/stay absolutely silent when they came back; of course not. Obviously it was okay to disrupt /instigate a fight in my room. UNbelievable. I learned right then and there, that I have no chance, simply because I have no support.
Fast forward to today - Thursday
One of the girls, K, that was suspended for one day for shoulder butting the one girl to get her to fight her, she, K, totally beat the crap out of the girl, S, who has been causing drama with for over a week now. I have sent S to guidance to share her concerns (that seems to be the answer to everything at this school - the guidance office). I have also told S to stay away from this girl b/c I really have my hands tied if I don't hear or see any of the stuff S tells me that K is doing... S walks at the back of our lunch line, sits on the other side of the classroom, etc and still she totally gets beat up.
It gets better (but really I mean totally disgusting)
Get this... K beats up S before 4th period and by 6th period she is back in the hallways bragging about the butt kicking she did a few hours ago... UNbelievable. She did get a 10 day suspension, but shouldn't she be sitting in the office for the rest of the day?!
Later in 4th period... I simply ask a girl to sit "in it not on it" in a normal tone of voice, she FLIPS OUT! Yelling across the room at me, "MAN, GEEZ, why you always gotta be on me, I hate this class, I'm gonna bring my momma up here, gawsh dang, etc." To which I can't resist a not so good response in a somewhat hacked voice, "Please do bring your mom up here, I have wanted to talk to her for quite some time; you keep saying that, but I have yet to meet her..." She of course is like whatever. I called home spoke with her aunt, and shared the fact that this child has verbally abused me for no reason for the past few days. I'm sure she will improve for a day or so and then be back to the same crap.
6th period today
One of my least favorite boy student tells a girl (and the entire class because a normal tone is impossible- I'm even starting to lose my ability to speak in a normal tone of voice, by the end of the day) that so and so (insert really nasty comment that a 6th grader shouldn't know about) to her last night. I about FELL OVER. I didn't know what to say and the entire classroom knew it. I glared at him, trying to figure out if I just heard what I thought I did and what do I say now?! I didn't come up with much, but "referral" was in the sentence...
When I call home to let whomever know what he said, the abuse that I suffer all day, began again... She didn't think that what he said was very surprising to come out of a 6th graders mouth, she had heard 3 yr olds say worse... Oh just flippin' fantastic! AND the fact that WHY do his teachers always call for petty stuff, never about the fights he gets into, until after the fact (well that is usually how that goes, but whatever) I stated that I was calling about a less than petty event, and she yells at me "Don't interrupt me, I wasn't done talking!" "His teacher's call b/c he won't be quiet or stop disrupting... well they are the teacher, they get paid to do that, not call me at work to tell me about it! I can't just come up there and make him be quiet."
My blood pressure went through the roof! ( I checked it about 25 min after this phone call and I have a record folks - 154/98 my average as of late is 144/90 )
Long story short, I was BAWLING to my friend Allie, before I even left the building... I can't make any kind of difference in this school, so I am now going to make a difference in my own life, as well as my marriage... it is time to move on and focus on what really is important... the absolute love of my life, my friends and family, and not to mention my health...
It's going to be a great 2008! :-)
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Habitat for Humanity!
Okay so for all of the negative, I need to start focusing on the positive!
The Crew
Everybody grab a piece of grass and get to work! :-)
I am on the Service Learning Committee at my school and this is Ms. Ewing and I with our hands dirty from laying sod...
We were the two adults who supervised 28 of our middle schoolers, while we/they sodded a Habitat House yard Saturday morning, Dec 1st!
Below is "my" side of the house...
It took me and about 6 students (off and on... a variety of 6 students) about an hour...
The Crew
Everybody grab a piece of grass and get to work! :-)
What a wonderful experience!
It was so refreshing to see some of my students and other students from the school work together, for the good of someone else and not complain one bit. :-) I am looking forward to our next Habitat day in the Spring!
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
My Life as a Zoo Keeper...
Yes, you read that correctly... my school is a zoo and the animals that attend our zoo, RUN the zoo. I attempt to tame these wild animals, but as any zoo keeper knows, some days are better than others...
An event that took place yesterday clearly proves that the zoo animals (students) RUN our school/ do whatever the hell they want....
A 4th grader from the elementary school behind our middle school made it through an entire school day and on to the right bus and no one batted an eye! You are likely asking how does a 4th grader manage to attend a 6th grade school day and no one question her presence....
Well, she's smart and our school, again, is a zoo.
She used one of our current student's schedules. She scratched out their name and hand wrote in her own.... now you ask, why were you okay with that Paige? Well, I get a new student every other week, and often times they just SHOW up and I really never get any notice of whether they are new or not.... so... when a kid comes in and produces a schedule, I add them as my 25th name and go on with my math class... And honestly, I thought the scratched out name was a name she didn't want to go by... I mean my brother grew up being called Grant, his middle name, but his report card always said Stanford, so I didn't think a thing of it!
Another reason my school is a zoo and the kids seriously do whatever the hell they want....
I had a student on my roster the ENTIRE first nine weeks, and he never showed up.... mind you my class roster would change DAILY the first nine weeks and I only got an updated copy if I requested one!!! I never knew who the heck I was suppose to have in my class.... so... the end of the nine weeks comes and he is still on my roster... well NG (no grade) b/c he never showed up.... I get an email from the principal about said student.... he has been going to PE the entire time, but he should show up to my class for the 2nd nine weeks!!! Oh and I should go back and teach what I can of the first nine weeks to him, at some point in time... Oh ya right... like WHEN?!
More proof that my school is the saddest place on Earth. The principal does these surveys to find out how the teachers/staff are feeling about the school (it's a part of the school improvement plan - LOL) A sample question is as follows:
Would you bring your child to ABC School?
Woud you be comfortable with your child having any teacher assignment at ABC School?
You rate these on a 1 to 5 scale I think... I always mark 1 or 2, bc my answers are Hell No and No to those two questions....
So I digress, my point is that these surveys have only decreased since the beginning of the school year.... SO now there is a suggestion box in the teacher's work room!!
I truly feel obligated to put a realistic suggestion, as I am the most vocal person about how messed up the school is.... Honestly though, what to suggest?
We began the school year all sorts of messed up and things have only gone down hill...
I'll have to think of something....
I will have to share more later, because my zoo, as I now refer to it, has me constantly saying, "Are you freakin' kidding me?"
Oh and my doctor is now concerned about my blood pressure always being too high... I tell you, it's this zoo keeper job... very stressful!
An event that took place yesterday clearly proves that the zoo animals (students) RUN our school/ do whatever the hell they want....
A 4th grader from the elementary school behind our middle school made it through an entire school day and on to the right bus and no one batted an eye! You are likely asking how does a 4th grader manage to attend a 6th grade school day and no one question her presence....
Well, she's smart and our school, again, is a zoo.
She used one of our current student's schedules. She scratched out their name and hand wrote in her own.... now you ask, why were you okay with that Paige? Well, I get a new student every other week, and often times they just SHOW up and I really never get any notice of whether they are new or not.... so... when a kid comes in and produces a schedule, I add them as my 25th name and go on with my math class... And honestly, I thought the scratched out name was a name she didn't want to go by... I mean my brother grew up being called Grant, his middle name, but his report card always said Stanford, so I didn't think a thing of it!
Another reason my school is a zoo and the kids seriously do whatever the hell they want....
I had a student on my roster the ENTIRE first nine weeks, and he never showed up.... mind you my class roster would change DAILY the first nine weeks and I only got an updated copy if I requested one!!! I never knew who the heck I was suppose to have in my class.... so... the end of the nine weeks comes and he is still on my roster... well NG (no grade) b/c he never showed up.... I get an email from the principal about said student.... he has been going to PE the entire time, but he should show up to my class for the 2nd nine weeks!!! Oh and I should go back and teach what I can of the first nine weeks to him, at some point in time... Oh ya right... like WHEN?!
More proof that my school is the saddest place on Earth. The principal does these surveys to find out how the teachers/staff are feeling about the school (it's a part of the school improvement plan - LOL) A sample question is as follows:
Would you bring your child to ABC School?
Woud you be comfortable with your child having any teacher assignment at ABC School?
You rate these on a 1 to 5 scale I think... I always mark 1 or 2, bc my answers are Hell No and No to those two questions....
So I digress, my point is that these surveys have only decreased since the beginning of the school year.... SO now there is a suggestion box in the teacher's work room!!
I truly feel obligated to put a realistic suggestion, as I am the most vocal person about how messed up the school is.... Honestly though, what to suggest?
We began the school year all sorts of messed up and things have only gone down hill...
I'll have to think of something....
I will have to share more later, because my zoo, as I now refer to it, has me constantly saying, "Are you freakin' kidding me?"
Oh and my doctor is now concerned about my blood pressure always being too high... I tell you, it's this zoo keeper job... very stressful!
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