I want to apologize to legions of you who are fans of my blog.
I've been busy.
My total student count sits at 192 now. Last weekend I had a stack of papers 6 inches tall to grade. Plus, it was the end of the six weeks and grades had to be averaged.
It is taking a toll physically and mentally. I'll try to make it up to you. In the meantime, say a prayer for me as I cope with this ludicrous situation.
7 comments:
Just got an email from the dean of my school saying there will be no further history teachers added to our school...and to just cope with the situation the best I can...oh, brother.
What was their reasoning behind that? My life was thrown into choas a few years back because there were teachers with 1 or 2 extra kids in the classroom. You have 192 kids!!! The district should know how unruly that makes the classroom and how much work each kid adds on to the teacher. If you spent just less than one minute on each of those papers you were grading, that would be 3 hours of grading 1 assignment. Am I right in saying that you don't have a conference period? You are working an extra 3 hours a day that you give an assignment!!
Praying for you Papa. Sorry this has been such a difficult year.
Jenny
A little more information on my school day. I climb on my bus at 6:35 each morning. I drive to a special spot I discovered and spend some quiet time between 7 and 7:30. During this time, I pray, I meditate, and I try to gather strength for the day.
In a future blog, I'll introduce you to a guy I've met as a result of parking here every day.
I finish my bus runs by 8 and immediately head to my room...unless I have to attend a departmental meeting or have to meet a parent. The bell rings at 8:20. This 20 minutes is the only time I have to get materials ready for the day.
All of my classes are 50 minutes with the exception of 4th period, the period - the time when the school has to feed 1400 students. This period is 1 hour, 20 minutes long, excluding lunch. My class eats "A" lunch, meaning they go to lunch first, then come to me for the extra long period. Unfortunately, this is one of the biggest classes I have and also the absolute worst behaviorally.
My off period is the final period of the day, but I can't use it since I leave the building as soon as the 2:40 bell rings and hustle to my bus. I have to be at Frederick Douglass Elem. by 2:55. I usually pull away from there at 3:05 with 35 or so K-3 kids. By 3:10, I've gotten them to their apartment and I head back to Hood for my final bus run.
I usually have the bus back to the bus lot by 4:05 and get to go home...unless I have a bus lot meeting (like I do tomorrow) or a faculty meeting (like I do on Thursday).
Let's get this straight: There are billions of jobs worse than this. I am well paid for all of this and I get incredible days off. But I also submit that what is going on is unreasonable, yea even ludicrous...and I refuse to be a part of this nonsense after next May 26.
One of the things that is helping me through this is the knowledge that this is it...I'm doing some stuff for the final time.
One of the things I'll be fighting between now and May 26 is the temptation to be non-professional. I MUST work for my unreasonable employer as though for God...and that will be difficult. One part of me will want to skip meetings (what are they gonna do, fire me?) or start giving a half-hearted effort. But I can't let that happen. Just can't.
Thanks for even reading this. I do covet your prayers.
Sounds like you are heeding Colossians 3:23. Hang in there for 7 more months......and thanks for driving the bus!
Any idea what is in store for next year: interests, retirement, etc??
bdp
The best possible scenario would be teaching at Dallas Christian. Chances are slim to none that will happen. My next best plan is to drive a bus for Rockwall ISD and spend my free time helping Carole with Maddie, a young lady with lots and lots of energy. Worse case scenario: to continue to drive for Dallas County Schools. I would make myself available for school day field trips since I don't want to drive back and forth 10 times a week.
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