We had a staff meeting after school. My principal asked me to present on a certain topic; I knew it would be one at which the staff would throw vegetables, but even knowing that I still lost my cool at one point and said, "screw it, I'm out," and I sat down. We spent more time in that meeting complaining about a legal requirement (that has been one since 1976!) than it takes to comply with said legal requirement--and yes, I'm quite serious about that.
Then, after getting frustrated in the meeting, I had to take the first exam in my current (and hopefully last!) master's class. There were a couple minor things that I couldn't remember under pressure but I think I got the biggies. I'm predicting a low A.
Then I got home and, with all the rain we've been getting, one of my fences is ready to come down--and if it does, my dog will...well, you know. It all goes downhill from here. First I have to figure out why the fence is falling in the first place--is the post rotten? It shouldn't be, it's one of the newest ones in my fence! But I can't tell anything in a torrent in the dark, so I jerry-rigged it a bit and hopefully it will stay up till I can see in in the daylight on Saturday.
I'm inside and dry now. A friend is coming over. I hope the rest of my evening is more enjoyable than the past 4 hours have been!
4 comments:
Sorry for your bad day.
I have a student teacher. She's perky and young.
She's been told she is REQUIRED to have a "social issue" component to every single lesson.
Every. Single. Lesson.
Really?
Yes, really.
Then she says that my district, which has told us "money is tight" will be hiring new hires with NO EXPERIENCE for a mere $4000 less than those of us with 15 plus years in the district.
This is a district that hides its pay scale under the concept that if you don't have a marketable skill outside of the education corridor, your skills are not worth much. i used to bill out at $130 an hour. I went back to teaching for stability and insurance.
I've done a very unscientific poll of teachers I have taught with across the curriculum for my entire tenure here.
None are making the median salary-which you would think at 17 years would be halfway at least through a career.
I do know that my district is in money trouble.
Custodial staff has been cut. The HVAC is controlled from the Admin building and goes off at 2:00 every day no matter how warm or cool it is outside. Since the buildings feature out of code single paned windows and largely uninsulated walls, you can feel the temp radiate in. They are pushing a bond issue in May, which will fail because everyone's property taxes went up exponentially with the rising value of homes.
The bond issue will fail. But in the meantime they are paying band directors $45,000 stipends (that is not a typo) and our head football coach makes twice as much as the average classroom teacher and teachers NO CLASSES. The only reason he doesn't make more than our principal is because Texas has a law that makes it illegal.
But I am calm. Granted, I know I will have to work at some job until I die. But it probably won't be this one. I'll be damned if I work as hard as I do to make less than the custodial staff....and that is the way things are heading. So having made a decision to get out next year is somewhat of a relief. Maybe I will write a book talking about how to really teach my subject without the need for imposing issues. Maybe I will paint and sell my work on Etsy. Maybe I will in a trailer under a bridge. I don't know. I just know that this is wrong and it's the prevailing way things seem to be run in this nation lately.
Costa Rica looks nice.
Costa Rica *does* look nice. It's just that you're screwed if the political winds there change.
On the other hand, it sounds like you're kinda screwed where you are. I'm sorry that you have to work in that kind of environment.
Have you considered international schools? I'm thinking about those.
I'm considering charter schools and possibly parochial schools. There are several Blue Ribbon Catholic schools in my area if I can get past the social issues that the church hierarchy seems to have imposed courtesy of the new communist in charge. Actually Uruguay also looks nice. Sorry for the rant. I am just tired of seeing people who work hard and do their jobs get the shaft. Justice isn't just blind anymore, she's locked in a box in the attic.
This article made Uganda sound like a nice place to retire. (Not an article about retiring in exotic locations, but about how aid agencies keep trying the same things, creating new layers of aid, and never bothering to see if the earlier iteration failed, but just keep piling on more and more layers of the same inteventions):
https://reason.com/archives/2017/02/12/ugandas-bad-seeds
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