Taking a Break

I think I need to quit this thing. It's enough that I worry about work at work, when I wake up in the morning, when I go to sleep at night...I could at least reserve myself some time to not deal with my increasingly stressful job. I'm making one last entry, tonight, then this site is going to have to become something else.

Last year was, minute to minute, much more stressful than this one. Last year was all about survival, getting through each day. I can do that now - it's no problem - but now that I'm out of that mode, now that I [sort of] know what I'm doing, I get more and more frustrated each day. Why? Because now I know what things could be like if only we had the resources in our schools. Let me share a few examples:

At my school, we are in week four, yet we are still unable to make copies. There are those who say that "good teachers should not need to make a lot of copies." Fine. I agree that doing pointless worksheets all the time is, well, pointless. But when every element of the curriculum that we are required to use calls for doing worksheets that are included in the curriculum, it becomes very necessary for the teachers to have access to a copier. It was made clear to us by the administration that we would not be reimbursed for any copies we made on our own time at public copy shops like Kinko's. And while Kinko's does give us a discount, it's still very expensive - $1.50 a foot for laminating [laminating machine's broken, too], and something like nine cents for a copy. This adds up fast. The district does provide us with $250 for supplies and expenses throughout the year, but this money does not come to us until our September check. Most of us just can't afford to spend $30 a week on something that should be provided by our school. Of course, this problem could be very easily solved if the district would spend the money on consumable workbooks for each child in each subject. Things would be so much easier on the students and teachers.

Many teachers at my school, including me, still do not have enough textbooks for our students. We don't have teacher's editions for all the subject areas. I have a friend who teaches fifth grade at another school. In fifth grade, the high stakes test is in Science. At this particular school, there is one copy of the Science curriculum, and it is in the library. Teachers must go to the library to do their lesson planning. They do not have the TE, which is vital to presenting the lessons, at hand in the classroom.

It just seems to me like so much money and time are wasted on things of no importance. Training that teaches us nothing. Laptops that no one brings to school, because if we don't buy the expensive insurance [with our own money, of course] we're liable for the cost of the computer if it's stolen or damaged at school. Computers that sit unused in the classroom because the kids don't know how to use them, we don't have computer classes for them, and technology isn't a required part of the curriculum, so we're not allowed to use time during the day for it. How effed up is that? We live in a technology-driven world, we have the resources to educate the students about technology, yet we're not given the time to do it.

And I can't even go into my opinions on the war in Iraq, the evil Bush Regime, Haliburton, Republicans in general, the war...

I think we need to get back to basics. Memorize times tables, learn long division, write vocabulary words in a notebook, do science experiments. All this nonsense cooperative group work, new ways of teaching math - it just doesn't work. Bring corporal punishment back. My students from Mexico are, aside from the language barrier, far ahead of the students who were born here. There's still a fear and respect of teachers instilled in students there, I guess. These American kids know there's really no consequences for their bad behavior - the worst we can do is tell their parents, and they usually don't care or are too busy to care. I've written before about how parents see it as the teacher's responsibility to teach ethics and morals. I'm not saying I want to beat my students, I'm just saying that being sent to the principal's office used to mean something.

So...I might come back every now and then and post something about my job, but probably not. Wish me luck this year - I need it.