Teaching is Easy

Here's a post for those "teaching is easy" people who think we work from 8-3, sit behind a desk all day giving work, and get all holidays & weekends off.

My day began at 6:00AM. I was out the door at 7:15. It rained yesterday. It got cold last night. My car doors were frozen shut this morning. I had deicer . . . in the trunk, which was also frozen. We had deicer in the Jeep . . . which is in the shop. I broke two nails trying to get in the door. Unfreeze door with rubbing alcohol. Make it into building carrying bookbag with papers I graded last night, purse, and two grocery bags with food for the holiday room. I put things down and go to make copies.

Copier doesn't work upstairs. Copier experts are nowhere to be found. Secretary downstairs takes me to the main copier, but doesn't know how to run them double sided. I do, so she told me to touch it. NOBODY touches the main copier . . . under penalty of 1000 lashings by the copier lady. I took a deep breath and touched it. They'll probably pull my fingerprints off the panel tomorrow and I'm done!

Periods 1-3 . . . students are writing short stories, which are my least favorite things in the world. The kids love writing them, but they just don't have enough life experiences to piece together a decent story most times, no matter how many we've read. We're in writing workshop, so I've got kids in every level from brainstorming to typing second drafts. They've not used the laptops before, so I'm also tech trouble-shooting. The batteries on part aren't holding a charge, so they're shutting down on them right and left. If I'd heard "Mrs. Hill" in that whiny 10-syllable way they say it, I was changing my name. And for some reason they revert to kindergarten and POKE ME when I don't answer them immediately. STOP POKING ME!!!!

My breakfast is sitting on my desk, untouched. My diet coke is hot. I need to pee.

During that I discover that two of the grades for each class have posted wrong, so there were LOTS of really low grades that I didn't catch yesterday . . . and 3-week checks were going out. I frantically try to remedy that problem between working with the kids. I still need to pee.

Fourth period boys arrive and we have our "come to Jesus" meeting before I'll let them set foot back in the computer lab. Things go well. I still haven't gone to pee.

At lunch there's NO supervisor . . . and they're serving peas, so we're also monitoring kids. Two of mine throw peas. I'd hoped to go pee, but no luck. I'm eating my cafeteria chuckwagon sandwich as I watch kids . . . during my 20 minutes of lunch. Teachers remind me that we're having "lunch bunch" tomorrow for the student of the week kids . . . and had I ordered the food yet. Ummm . . . no. I'm still trying to pee. On planning I had to locate all of those kids, bring them to my room, explain the "lunch bunch" to them, take their picture for the wall of fame, and give them a "Student of the Week" pencil. I also have two kids typing stories and about 40 who want me to correct their grades so their parents don't kill them when they get home. I finally go pee . . . around 1:45. I run out of time to use the main phone, so I have to use my cell phone to call in my medicine refills as I ran out of meds last night. One girl in the room says, "Gee, you take a lot of medicine." Yes, yes I do. Funny how I didn't start taking that much until I started teaching middle school. LOL

Last period I have to correct MORE grades and check brainstorm sheets for several kids so they can begin drafting. I send the kids to the other teacher in the room and tell them not to talk to me until I'm finished with what I'm doing . . . and I'll let them know when that is. THEY KEEP COMING TO MY DESK. When I ignored them, they kept at it . . . and POKED ME and said my NAME REALLY LOUD. I felt like crawling under my desk and screaming. Finally I got them all settled.

I had to stay after school to write out my lesson plans for Wednesday. We're out of school on Monday & Tuesday and I have to be out on Wednesday because Dad's having surgery. I was afraid I'd not get the plans done tomorrow, if today is any indication of my Friday.

And then there's the email.

Now, I know I've been rude to people in my lifetime since I'm not perfect, but I don't recall ever being rude to a total stranger who did NOTHING to me.

I had to send an email to a teacher at another school to request writing pieces for a student who transferred to our school. The student gave me the teacher's name.

In the email I asked her if she had any writing pieces that she could send. I went on to explain that we were working on short stories, and several students were pulling pieces from their working folders. This student asked about his folder and I told him I'd look into it for him.

She replied that she was his [b]READING[/b] teacher, and it was her job to get his 3rd grade reading level to 6th grade level . . . and she didn't have time to worry with short stories. She did have two other pieces, a poem & brochure, that she could send if I sent her my address.

The "reading" part in bold kind of got me, but I didn't think anything about it. I replied with a thank you and gave my address. In KY all students are required to have a cumulative writing folder from k-12, and it's passed along with their other records. This means that students have TWO folders . . . one classroom folder and one cumulative folder for writing. Because she'd mentioned two writing pieces and not the folder, I added, "I assume that he also has a cumulative writing folder since they're required by the state, so if you happen to have that I would appreciate a copy."

I got a VERY snippy reply back from her . . . VERY snippy. She told me that she didn't have TIME to go looking for a folder.

I replied that I was very sorry to have bothered her, and it wasn't necessary for her to look for the folder. I didn't mean to make her angry, and the student could simply start again. I thanked her for her time.

I got back ANOTHER email where she told me I was the one over-reacting. (Although I hadn't told her she was over-reacting.) She said that she, too, had to request writings from teachers in the past, but she had never been "threatened with state requirements" before. Huh? She lost me there. Threatened??

At first I didn't want to reply, and then I decided to send one final reply. I told her that I was sorry I'd offended her, but I was not threatening her. I happen to be a cluster leader . . . who is in charge of managing the school writing program . . . so I'm always thinking in terms of the classroom writing folders vs. the cumulative writing folders, which aren't always kept together. I thought that since she had only two pieces in the classroom folder, that she might know the location of the cumulative folder . . . and I only mentioned the "state required" part because lots of people--including writing teachers--don't get that there are TWO folders. I then told her that she didn't need to send me anything, and I was sorry for bothering her.

I didn't hear back after that.

Now, in the meantime I'm stewing away in my room wondering (A) if I was really b*tchy in my email and didn't realize it or (B) she's really b*tchy of (C) we're mutually b*tchy.

There are two people who used to teach at that school, so after school I went in search of them to see which of us needs to wear the pointy hat, and as soon as I said her name they both laughed out loud and rolled their eyes.

So, apparently I can put my pointy hat back in the closet. They told me not to take it personally because that's just the way she is. Wow, I guess I knew that every school has at least one, but I thought they just griped at people within their buildings!

Chad came to pick me up at 4:30 . . . dressed in full hunting gear with RIFLE in the back all redneck style. And he's got mud slung up the side of the car. Since his Jeep is in the shop, he took my car turkey hunting today. We go to check on his Jeep, and guy isn't in the shop. We leave it there until tomorrow. We to to pharmacy. I wait in a LONG line . . . although I did have a parent conference while there. Then we go to Pizza Hut so I can order the food for the kids tomorrow and have it delivered. I stand in line again. Apparently everyone not at the pharmacy is getting pizza. I ask Chad if he wants pizza for supper. No, he wants to eat at home. Fine. I get in the car, he heads the other way. He's changed his mind and wants a McRib from McDonald's. FINE!!!! It takes them 10 minutes to get the order because everyone else is at McDonald's.

We get home and adopted doggie is back from his recent outing . . . limping. I check him out, give him food & water, scratch his ears, and notice the two other dogs . . . black one I've never seen and the neighbor's dog have decided to have a fight in the front yard. DH and neighbor decide the best way to break up a dog fight is . . . let loose with a round of turkey shot into the ground. I did manage to keep him from that little endeavor.

Holy moley . . . what a day!!!!

So, anybody want to trade days?