I'm Drowning
This post has the potential to be the longest and most boring in my blog's history (which isn't saying much). This week has been the longest short week I have ever endured. EEK!!!I'm not sure how many other schools go through the whole "20-day count" problem, but this year it is wreaking havoc on my school. I work in a very transient area of my city, and the parents think the way to get around the system is to continuously pull their children out of one school and put them into another. So, when the 20 day count rolls around, it's like a game to try to figure out where all the students are within the district.
Right now, we are down about 30 students, which is one teacher allocation. So we are looking at having to get rid of one of our teachers. THANKFULLY, admin can't simply pick and chose. They are required to get rid of the last hire within the district. So I'm not worried about my own job. What I do worry about, is whether or not whichever teacher we have to say goodbye to is going to cause that much more trouble on our already taxed classloads.
So, if we close the world a little bit more and focus in on myself, we can take a look at my current situation. I have about 125 students total, which isn't a bad classload. Unfortunately, they are all located in 4th period. Really.
Ok, not really. It sure does seem like it though. My school divides each grade level into two teams. Each team has a common prep period. I have been on the same team since I started at this school, despite having to change subjects in order to stay there. For the past four years my team has been the bastard step-child of my school. There are only two of us that remain on the team on a regular basis. The rest of the team has been in and out every year. We are required to do a lot of things throughout the school year, and they expect us to work together with our teams to do it. So changing teams every year can be stressful. We have to figure out how to work with an entirely different group of people. So every year, this colleague of mine, and I, have to introduce a new group of teachers to how we get things done in the 6th grade.
Now that you know how my school is divided. We need to have an understanding of the prep periods. We work on a block schedule. So every day there are four big classes and a reading class for 40 minutes. The kids have eight classes total, so we see our students every other day. Each teacher gets a prep period every day, but every other day they are required to meet with their teams. Does that make sense?
This year, I ended up on the little team. There are only five of us on our team. We have one Language Arts teacher, one Math teacher, one Science teacher, and one Social Studies teacher, along with one Special Education teacher. We have our prep period during 5th period, which is in the morning on "B" days.
The OTHER team has a whole lot more teachers. They have TWO Language Arts teachers, TWO math teachers, one Science teacher, one Social Studies teacher, an ESL teacher, the behavior academy director (also a social studies teacher), and two Special Education teachers. Their prep is during 4th period, which is at the end of the day on "A" days.
So go ahead, guess why my 4th period is so friggin huge! All of us tha have 6th graders during 4th period have these huge classes, and the other team has no big classes at all. My team has kids sitting on the floor during 4th period, but the other team has no classes over 25 students. My team, and the four of us that are on it, has 130 students, while the other team has 90.
Obviously, somebody seriously dropped the ball when it comes to the master schedule for this year.
Now, let us go ahead and combine the crappy master schedule and the 20-day count. We know we are losing a teacher, and the numbers tell us that no matter which teacher we lose, we are going to need to go ahead and take one of the electives teachers and make them teach 8th grade science. Which is fine, because right now there is only one 8th grade science teacher, and that poor man has close to 200 students. BUT (I know bro, never start a sentence with the word "but." I'm sorry), that still leaves us with a HUGE scheduling problem in 6th grade.
The vice principal said I should go ahead and take care of it, because quite honestely, he just doesn't have the time with all the OTHER responsibilities he has. Ok, no problem
I submit a slew of schedule changes, thinking that we are going to be working so much better once they get taken care of.
Then I talk to the other team, who decided that they didn't want any more kids on their team. They are doing just fine with the kids they have.
Back to the friggin drawing board.
Then there are the students themselves. I get so frustrated with the non-teaching side of my job, that I forget sometimes that my job is about teaching.
Every three weeks we send home progress reports. We require the students to get them signed by a parent and then they are to be returned to their reading teachers. I have been doing the progress reports for a very long time, so I expect that the week they go home will turn into a week where I will wish I had an earpiece for the phone in my classroom.
I was completely unprepared for the response I received this year. I actually have parents camped out outside my classroom door at the end of every class period. Parents that are unhappy with the grade their child is receiving. Ok, this isn't entirely bad. I like being able to actually meet parents.
BUT (sorry again bro), they don't believe that it is their child's fault that the grade THEIR CHILD received is a failing grade. OH NO!! It is MY fault. The teacher, who gets paid crap. These parents are under the impression that I am out to get their kids.
Why yes... muhahahahahahahahahahah. That is the reason we all take this job right? RIGHT??
HELL FRIGGIN NO!!!!!
However, parents listen only to their children. They don't listen to the teacher.
I have learned how to overcome that particular obsticle. It's called a student portfolio. The students are all required to keep a portfolio with all of their graded assignments, and a table of contents that lists ALL of the assignments they are supposed to have. So I get out the portfolio, show it to the mommy who thinks I am the devil's spawn, and wait. Only twice have I ever been argued with AFTER the portfolio.
UNTIL TODAY. Not a single parent I spoke with today was able to understand that their child was failing because he/she wasn't doing the assignments. Or, they were doing the assignments but they were not meeting the expectations of that assignment. I rarely assign work for fun. All of my assignments are somehow aligned with our state standards, so they are all important. They prove that this child is indeed meeting the requirements in order to pass my class, or they prove that this child needs to try it again.
So I had parents today who insisted that I was out to get their kid, or that I was unwilling to allow their child to succeed.
Oh please.
Somebody please help me to remember why I do this job. I have horrible pain in my right wrist today from grading papers for the past 5 hours, I have a headache induced my 11-year olds, my house is overrun by, um, materials for my classroom, and I have to NOT go to my daughter's game tomorrow in order to get done what I need to get done for my class next week. I spend so much time on my job, that I don't have any time left for my life.
And, I have no idea what my husband looks like anymore.
posted by lobo5747 @ 6:02 AM
3 Comments:
I read your blog frequently and I am amazed at the hard work you do. I know I couldn't handle the stress of your job! Keep up the good work because someone has to teach our kids and you seem like you do a good job. You can smile knowing that at least you don't have my job... I am at the other end of the life circle. I work in a long term care facility. There are many parallels in our jobs,(moronic family members who don't understand just how much work we have to do, beaurocratic crap, being underpaid and overworked...) except at least you don't have to change diapers! LOL! Hang in there! WE NEED YOU!
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