Reader's Digest lists the job with the number one rate of burnout as...(drumroll please) Teaching! Yep, surprise! And after today - I know why. I am there. At 8:30 I was asleep on the couch. It's now 9:30 and I am headed to bed after forcing myself to put dishes in the dishwasher and wash my face. It was one of those days.
Oh, let's see...a little taste of what today was like for those uninitiated like I was just a few short, sweet months ago:
- Remember how my room was tagged on Tuesday? Well today I found a handmade gang posted in my room (complete with a misspelling of terf instead of turf) which I now have to take to the police officer tomorrow after I confront the kid who I think drew it.
- I am grading a 5 paragraph essay they turned in last week. So far I have some with 7 paragraphs, some with 3 and one with 1 paragraph. And the AIMS (the big deal standardized tests) are coming up asap.
- We had 2 kids for detention today and 10 for tutoring afterschool. It was a madhouse and I helped the situation by offering Mike and Ikes for good behavior. Well, for at least pretending to be good.
- One of my kids decided to skip getting on the activity bus at 5:30 after tutoring, went to the basketball game instead (illegal in Middle School without a parent present) and then had no way home. So guess who had to take her home?!?! Yep, the other Miss Knapp and I. After a very loud, very public dressing down by yours truly.
- After reading 41 pages of the novel Tuck Everlasting, which is very good so far, I still have kids who are saying, "I don't get it."
- After lunch, when us teachers are all coming back from our 30 minute bell-to-bell break, there was a fight in the hallway and the huge eighth graders who's parents have bullied the principal into dropping any and all disiplinary referalls, were blocking our access. Fan-freakin'-tastic. Another day in the hood.
- Our school police officer reported that we have more gang activity and violence problems at our campus then the local high school does this year.
So this and so much more is why I am going to bed now.
Oh, and yeah, I wore heels today and guess what? Only got 5200 steps in instead of my usual 10,000+. Interesting. Can't wait to get back to the tennis shoes tomorrow!
1 comment:
Sarah, I'm sorry that you're dealing with this now. I have been there, but thankfully never had to deal with the gangs. The bully parents that run the school - too much of that everywhere. It makes our job hard to get out of bed for. I wanted to tell you to get your resume into my district asap because one of our teachers at my school (English department) is taking a one year leave to teach in Chile. So that means there will be an opening. Email me for more details (including the awesome salary). Keep your chin up....you'll catch a kid doing something good soon - and it'll make your job worth it all over again : ) Love you!
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