The First Day of School

And I'm not there! I called my friend who is still teaching on Monday, and she didn't even say hello - just, "Hit by a truck. Hit by a truck."

I remember that feeling - being so exhausted at the end of the day that you don't have energy to breathe, much less have a life. Now, I go to work, come home, and have time to do things. I've gotten in touch with so many friends that I'd neglected for the years I was teaching. Granted, I had a lot of great friends and sweet kids at school, but I really let some people slip out of my life, and it always made me sad.

I'm going to New York City for my job this weekend. I'm actually excited about what I do and enjoy my work. It's so completely different from how I felt when I was teaching. It's weird to have a job where I don't need a union to protect me. It's really weird to be able to order office supplies whenever I need them. And the traveling? The closest thing I ever got to travel when I was a teacher invloved going to Seagoville, TX, and if you've ever been there, you know it's definitely not a vacation.

I still have nightmares about teaching. Every night this week I've dreamed about it - probably from talking to Sarah about the first day and what a drag it is. I keep dreaming about running late to school and having no lesson plans. Hmm.

Reason #439 Why I Quit My Job

I just thought it was over. The District is still doing their damnedest to make my life miserable:

May 2002 - May 2005: Worked full-time as a teacher in the Dallas Independent School District, with a contract stating that I would be paid each month, once, on dates that were set during the summer of 2004.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005: Wake up and check the bank account, expecting to see a nice, fat (well, maybe not fat but at least not scrawny) balance, and instead see the paltry sum that had been there the night before. Perplexed, I call the District payroll department to find out what's up, since I've had direct deposit for the entire three years I've worked at my school.

Am told that there is "some problem" with my check, and I won't be able to get it today. Ask for a paper check to be printed immediately, since I'm leaving town to visit my sick grandmother, and won't be able to wait around until tomorrow. Am told that there is absolutely no way a paper check will be printed; they never print them under any circumstances anymore, and I will have to wait until Friday when the money will be in my account. Call the Union, which is not helpful at all.

Friday, June 17, 2005: Still no money. Call the payroll department again, am first told that the check has processed and should be in my account, then am told that a paper check has been printed. Funny, right, since they don't ever print them? I am two hours away at sick grandmother's bedside, so I arrange for a friend to pick the check up. Payroll lady says my friend can come between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. to pick up my check.

Friend shows up, along with the dozen or so other people who have not received their checks either, at 4:00 to get the check. Gets told to wait. Calls me; I call the payroll lady again (by now it's 5:00) and am told that the check will not be ready - I will have to wait, now, until Monday. Get really angry and take it out on the payroll lady, who deserves it since this was her fault, and because she won't just accept responsibility and take care of the situation. When a person only gets paid once a month, it is imperative that the paycheck arrive on time.

Without my knowledge, my friend also takes out frustrations on my behalf by asking payroll lady a series of questions including "How would you feel if you didn't get paid?"

Saturday and Sunday: Spend the weekend broke.

Monday, June 20: Wake up and call payroll. Hear: "No, your check is not ready. No, we don't know when it will be ready." Tell payroll fool that this is not acceptable, and ask to speak to someone else. Finally get in touch with treasurer lady, (I'd draw a heart around her name if I could) who finds my check and gives it to me, along with the contact info for the head of the Payroll Department, when I arrive at the District headquarters building half an hour later.

My main complaint isn't even that they basically lost my check, it's that they never gave me a reason why the mix up happened. What if I had kids to feed, or a parent who needed medicine, or was going to leave on vacation on Friday? These people were truly inconsiderate to me, and I plan to demand answers from the Payroll director.

And then...

...Just when I'd started to get over the whole thing, two of my students just called me.

Who knew they actually liked me? I don't remember ever looking up my teachers once school was over and calling them up. Oh wait, I e-mail with some of my old teachers on a regular basis...

Anyway, sweet, right? It's fine, but I gotta say, it's pretty boring talking to a couple of 12-year-olds on the phone. I remember loving the phone when I was little, and now I try to get off the phone ASAP, no matter who it is.

No More Schoolbooks

I literally never have to enter a school again for the rest of my life if I choose not to do so.

I've been out for two weeks now - two glorious weeks of not thinking about grade books detention TAKS TEKS thugteenagers administration etc...

In these two weeks, I've been pretty lazy. However, I went to the Bahamas again and I got a new job. First job I applied for, first interview I went on, and I got it. Anything else, any other job, would have been a letdown, so I'm pretty happy.

Not going to write about work anymore, though. Now that I'm not fighting the good fight at an inner-city school anymore, work-related writing is over for me.

I haven't started my new job yet, but I can already tell that it's going to be much, much better than what I was doing, so this site can return to it's original purpose - something fun for me. I never intended to make these pages a vent fest about a frustrating job, but for the last three years work has been all I've been able to think about.

No more! Bring on the world of grown-up fun, happy hour and highway commutes.

Countdown ON

I'm down to counting the hours. Currently, there are 49 hours left in the school year.

My friend, in his infinite generosity, decided to lend me his spare flat screen TV to take to school. This combined with the extra DVD player I have under my bed means that all my problems at school are solved. I have about ten hours worth of history films at school, and the Back to the Future trilogy that I also borrowed from my friend. The children will be quiet at last!

All I think about all the time is getting out of here. I have three months left on my lease, and to be honest I still haven't decided what I'll do once it's up. I really need to stay here until the end of October, because I'm in my friend's wedding. Still need to buy that dress, too.

It's really interesting how I keep meeting people who are opening my eyes to all that's out there to see. Until about five years ago, I never thought about traveling outside of North America and Europe. Small-minded, sure, but when you grow up in a small town in Texas, you just don't really think you'll ever get that far away. It doesn't help, either, to be raised in a family that just doesn't travel much. I come from a Texas ranching family that's been here for a long time. Work is valued above everything else, and travel is a luxury that my family just doesn't think about. That all changed a few years ago though, when my mom and step dad got married. He has really taught us how to travel and made us want to see more of the world. 

--

I really can't believe my teaching career is almost over. Ninety percent of the people that I know today I either met through my job or only know me as a teacher. I've never really thought of myself as a teacher, and knew it wouldn't be a career for me, so it's strange to think of people seeing me that way. This website has been mainly about my teaching job for the last three years. I kept trying to write about something else, but when the problems as big as those in an inner city school occupy your mind, there's not room for much else. Besides, I certainly needed to get all of that out.

Honestly much of this year I haven't wanted to document. Some highlights:

1) Having a conversation with four 12 and 13-year-old girls that began with, "Miss, you know how there's two different kinds of head on a boy?"

2) Being yelled at and cursed in three languages by teenagers.

3) Knowing that you're being looked at in a nasty way by students...they're way obvious about it and it's so gross.

4) Finding one of your books with such vulgarity about yourself written on it that you don't care to post the details on your website.

5) Catching six boys throwing rocks at your car, and trying to break into it so they can steal/destroy the soccer ball hanging from your rear view mirror, because they don't like that team.

6) Having a student go to jail for throwing a skateboard through a windshield, and having this same student make jokes about how you're going to get a broken window in your car...

7) Um...yeah...every day was awful times a thousand and all the highlights are the same. There were a few sweet kids who made it almost tolerable. I'll never forget the amazing group of kids who would help me out even when everyone else was being awful to me.

It's not just me either...everyone else from my grade level has quit as well...the administration drove us all away with their lack of support and disregard for the problems that come with teaching this age group.

But hey, it's almost over, right? Then it's off to play at the beach in the Bahamas, then back here to figure out the next couple of years.

Six Weeks!

It's down to six weeks before the end of school. I like doing my yearly math equation:

30 days

- 2 days with no students

- 2 days I will take off

- 2 field trips

- 1 field day

- 2 days of TAKS testing

- 2 days of ITBS testing

- 1 last day of school

_______________________

= 18 actual teaching days left!

And of these 18 days, there are only three full days, because on every single other day, we're either practicing for graduation or going to an assembly. Outstanding!

Then the job search/travel search/overseas teaching search/apartment search fun begins...

Belize and Guatemala

I went to Belize and Guatemala for spring break. The trip was fun. I liked Guatemala a lot more than Belize, especially now that I'm back.

We saw a ton of Mayan ruins at Tikal in Guatemala. It was so exciting. I have never seen anything that old! Taking a 'chicken bus' was also quite an experience. I met some really interesting people and ended up continuing the travel into Belize with some of them. None of us really had any set plans, so we headed to the town of Hopkins, Belize. It was really awesome. The cab (well, guy with a truck who would drive us) driver took us to this hippie woman's house/commune place on the  beach where we all proceeded to stay for several days. She had an Aussie girl living there - she'd been there for six months or more - told us she got there and just didn't want to leave - who baked fresh bread twice a day. And the food! They prepared fresh vegetarian meals for breakfast and dinner. Amazing. I loved this place and hope I can go back someday.

However, while at the beach in Belize, I got attacked by these awful sand flies. I look and feel like I have the chicken pox again. It's HORRIBLE. It drives me crazy all day long. And I have to go back to work tomorrow. Not quite sure how I'm going to deal with it at work.

Speaking of work, things are cool there - it's cool, right, when two months before school is over, the principal decides to change the schedule and the subjects we teach. I lucked out on this one, though -  I get to teach only History and Geography for the rest of the year. No more teaching to the TAKS Reading test (since the TAKS season is over). This, coupled with the dwindling number of days left in the year, leads me to believe I just might make it.

Nice Things

For all the complaining I do about my job, I rarely talk about the positive things that happen. It's not all bad:

1) Tonight a parent brought me cheese tamales since I'm a vegetarian.

2) This lady told me she wanted me to come and stay with her family at their home in Guanajuato, Mexico. Her son's in my class.

3) On Valentine's day, the principal made all the kids write an essay: "I love my teacher because..." and while I thought none of my students would write about me - they loved their teacher last year and were allowed to choose who they wrote about - all but two of them did - and most of my class from the previous year chose to write about me too. The things some of these kids wrote absolutely made me want to cry!

4) I busted this girl skipping school with older boys (really, these were likely men), and called her mom to tell her where she was and how to find her. On Valentine's day, her mom brought me flowers.

5) Since starting my job, I've been to Costa Rica, Mexico three times, the Bahamas, 14 states and next week I'm going to Guatemala and Belize. I've been able to do all of this because I have so much vacation time.

6) I have no less than 15 families in various Latin American countries who would put me up any time and treat me like a queen (teachers are actually respected there).

7) I'm getting paid to learn Spanish.

8) I've got some students who are so incredible that I know years from now* I'll still talk to them, and they'll be in some great college with a bright future. I'd love to be rich and pay for all of them to go to school.

9) I got to do all the projects I loved doing in school all over again. Having my students sweep the sixth grade science fair felt as good as when I won the science fair in eighth grade.

10) Really, though, my favorite thing has been getting to truly know Mexican culture. I've loved all the 15 parties, birthdays, First Communions - all of it.

*Edit in 2011. This happened. I'm still really close with so many of my students (viva Facebook!) and a bunch of them are in excellent colleges, right at the doorsteps of super bright and shiny futures. I couldn't be more proud of them.

60 Days

Finally, I'm able to talk about my job again. It's been months since I've had an outlet, and honestly my friends are getting sick of hearing about the murders and the overly hormonal teenagers, the cheating, skipping school, lying, stealing, etc. that goes on in a sixth grade classroom.

So many stories I haven't been able to share! School's not like it used to be. I'm not even that old - young enough that my students think I'm young still - and I feel like somebody's grandma going on about the good old days and the way things used to be. The main thing that's missing from school is a good old fashioned spanking. Kids need that fear of physical punishment to keep them from misbehaving. It's gone, and hell - getting suspended is fun - so what recourse is there for bad behavior?

NOTHING. Nothing at all. Parents don't help. Well, a few do, but the majority don't. Administrators try to help, but they're overwhelmed too. And what tools do they have? Alternative School is hard to justify, and requires tons and tons of documentation. It's gotten to where kids act up on purpose because they want out of class, and they know no one is going to "do anything" to them. Whatever.

I'm sick of their behavior and the obscene amounts of paperwork demanded by the district. I'm out. I quit. I finally gave up. Turned in my resignation letter already. I'll make it until the end of the year - 60 more school days - but after that, no more. I already gave notice. Can't wait to close that door on May 26.