Two Weeks Paid Vacation

I can't believe I made it through the first half of the year. As of 4 p.m. today, I do not have to see the halls of my school for 16 days. It sounds like a long time, but I imagine it will go by rather quickly. Still. Two weeks of no lesson plans, no screaming children and no work. Beautiful.

 

Being the last day of school before Christmas, we had parties today. I got so many presents from the children:

• Two poinsettia plants


• Three boxes of chocolates


• Two baskets of cookies


• Some kind of odd porcelain girl figurine


• Some kind of odd snowman figurine


• A surprisingly pretty glass cat, which was actually really sweet. The boy who gave it to me kept telling me all day that my present was "really special." See, a couple of months ago I told the class about this cat I had for a long time that died last year. That day, this boy drew a picture of a cat with a halo and wrote my cat's name under it. I guess he remembered that and wanted to give me a new cat to replace the dead one. Or something.


• A coffee cup filled with candies


• A nice candle, which was perfect because it replaced one that I already had of the exact same variety that had run out


• A bottle of perfume and some other cosmetic stuff - the kid's mom and I talked about makeup one afternoon and she actually remembered what kind of perfume and makeup I said I liked.

The best present, though, was from a kid in one of the sixth grade classes, this girl Selina. She made me a bracelet with my name on it. Not my first name, of course, but Ms. Owen, like the kids have to call me at school. I prefer Miss Owen, but I won't complain because the bracelet is fabulous. It's one of those beaded bracelets like all girls used to wear when we were little. I love it.

 

I gave every kid in my class a present and bought the class pizza. They were really good during the party.

 

I'm actually going to get to see one of my students over the break. She's spending Christmas in the same small town that I am, so her mom and I traded phone numbers. I'm going to go get her on Christmas Eve and bring her to my house. She's one of the really good, sweet, adorable kids in my class so it'll be fun.

 

Other than that, though, I plan on avoiding people aged 5-12 as much as possible over the next two weeks.

Plague

Another stellar day in the elementary school. I got the third grade plague again, but, this time, not from the students. I got it from a teacher friend of mine who also teaches third grade, but at another school. She got it from our friend who is now in the hospital, so, as you might guess, I'm feeling pretty awful, and honestly I'm kind of scared. Amber's complications came in the middle of the night, and the only reason she didn't die is that she was with her boyfriend who was able to rush her to the hospital. I hope that what she has is different from what Sarah and I have, because we both live alone and if we got all sick in the middle of the night, I doubt my cat or her neighbors would be able to help either of us.

The whole school is sick, it seems. When everyone got into the room this morning, I asked who was sick. Seventeen out of 19 little hands went into the air. I spent the majority of the day writing nurse referrals and checking for fevers.

Fortunately I'm scheduled to go to some Reading Intervention training for third grade ESL teachers tomorrow, so I'll be away from the kids. I told them all to stay home tomorrow since we won't be doing anything anyway. I'm hoping that some of them do, so that at least part of the class won't be sick anymore.

Wow. I think I should probably go to bed. I'm miserably sick, and the only thing remotely interesting on TV is Telemundo. By interesting I mean that the reception is good. It's amazing to me that Telemundo, headquartered in Florida, comes in magically clear, yet WFAA [ABC station for Dallas], headquartered down the street from my apartment, doesn't come in at all.

It's hard to believe that in four short days I'll be done with school for the semester. Two weeks off. I don't think I'll know what to do with all the free time. Lots of drinking and sleeping, I'm sure.

More...

Today was a mess. Just leave now if you don't want another one of my diatribes on the evils of the public school system. This should be short, though, because I really don't feel much like thinking about it anymore.

So, one of the sixth grade teachers was absent today. He's been absent all week. I swear he's used up all ten of his sick days in the last month! Anyway, the sub couldn't hack it, so he just got up and left. Left the 28 11-14 [yeah, there are 14-year-old sixth graders at my school] children with no supervision. They were just roaming around everywhere. Finally someone had the sense to notify the office, and the kids were divided up with other teachers.

Somehow, I ended up with eleven of them.

Take 20 eight- and nine-year-old kids, mix them with 11 11-14-year-old kids, add one very impatient and pissed off teacher, and you have, well, a mess. It was so loud all the kids were getting headaches. We got absolutely nothing done today.

The real treat was at lunch, though, when in the line I saw two of my kids pretending to be smoking weed and calling each other "little G." I met with the mom of one of the kids after school, and she told me he has a cousin that's a gang member and he totally looks up to him. Fantastic. Today the kid told me he was bored, so I asked him to write me a list of ten things he'd like to learn about. Among nicer things like wild animals and dinosaurs, he listed wrestlers and guns. Guns! He is eight! He is a little, tiny, 50-pound child! He shouldn't have to think about guns.

I'm taking tomorrow off. I can't wait. No kids tomorrow. No school. For three days. Then five more days and then...Winter Break. At last. Being off for two weeks paid will make up for at least some of the misery of the last five months.

Weak Parents

Most of the parents of my students are pretty good. They come up and ask me how their kid is doing, they show concern when their kid breaks the rules, and so forth. There's this one girl, though, that continually drives me insane. She talks back, and she repeatedly disobeys me. The other day she totally outdid herself - she stole things from inside my desk.

This girl, somehow, got into my desk drawer and took some things. I saw one of them sticking out of her pocket, and immediately asked her to remove it and give it to me. She didn't deny that she had taken it, and honestly didn't seem to care that she was in trouble.

This is where my problem with the parents comes in. I tracked her mom down at school yesterday, and told her what happened. Her response: "Oh, can you talk to her about that?"

What??? It is my job to make sure the child can add. Read. Write. It is, however, not my job to ensure that she is not a thief and a criminal. Aren't parents supposed to be responsible for anything when it comes to educating their child? The kid wasn't scared when I caught her, because she knew nothing would happen. All I can do is give them detention and sentences. Wow. How scary. She knows her parents aren't going to do anything to her, and what kid wouldn't want to be suspended?

What makes me most furious is this is the same kid who made the big fuss a few months back that boys were "bothering" her in class and made her whole family come up and talk to the principal about it. They went straight to the principal - never talked to me about the situation. The girl was lying anyway (and did eventually admit she made it all up). And now, when she's the one doing things wrong, they don't have time to bother with it. I'm just disgusted with the whole situation.

When we come back from winter break...I'm going to become a mean and strict and evil teacher. And I'm going to send kids to the office. Administration - they don't want us to send kids unless they've drawn blood on another kid. I'm not making this up. They think "all discipline should be handled in the classroom." So they just do what they want because they know we can't do anything to them.

The only reason I am able to get up and go today is that I know I don't have to go tomorrow. I took a day off. Today's going to be easy - finishing up the week of standardized tests, and not much else. Nonetheless, I really do not want to go.

A Delightful Day at Work

I almost had to kill some kids today.

See, on Tuesdays, I run detention for my hall. Detention is always filled with fifth and sixth grade students. Today, I had the usual group of boys who always have detention with me every week no matter what. For some reason, though, they were out of control today. I don't know if it was the rainy weather, the amount [huge, horrible, disgusting amount] of candy they've been eating lately, or the fact that school lets out for Christmas in a week and a half. Something got into these kids, though, and it was a nightmare dealing with them.

I won't describe the whole glorious half hour, but I'll share the high points:

• being punched in the stomach by a student


• hearing a 10-year-old boy tell me in Spanish to lick his balls


• hearing that same boy say, in English, "Miss ____! He said I didn't have one so I showed it to him!"


• then after that hearing the kid next to him call him a "gaywad" [haven't heard that since 1987!]


• standing in my classroom, helplessly, as two kids shot racial slurs back at each other with great ease...it ended with one telling the other that he wished he had a brick so he could shove it through the other's head.

Fifth grade. Fifth grade! These children are ten, maybe eleven years old. It's so scary to think about what they're going to be doing five, ten years from now that I don't even want to think about it.

A Total Waste of Time

I have to discuss for a moment these idiotic standardized tests. It's bad enough that we have to teach to the stupid test and write all our lesson plans with teaching to the test in mind. Now we have to start doing these practice tests all the time. I'm irritated about it right now, because I have to spend the next three days doing nothing but standardized test practice. How the hell are these children ever supposed to learn anything if all I do is give them tests constantly? It's insane. Someone should go find the education commissioner and beat his head against the wall or something. It's so frustrating.

Struggling

They told us at the beginning of the school year that this period between Thanksgiving and Christmas would be the hardest weeks of the entire year. I don't know if it's just school or what, but I'm finding that to be true. Maybe it's just letdown after being on vacation and coming back to real life. Maybe it's the usual annoyances [being poor, boys, fatigue, etc.] or something else. I don't know. I just know that I'm having trouble getting excited about anything, and I have so much to do that I'm losing my mind.

I'm thinking very hard about not teaching next year. The Alternative Certification stuff is making me insane, and if I don't finish it, the only consequence is that I don't get certified. If I don't plan to teach next year, then, well, the certification doesn't really matter so much. The worst thing that could happen is that I don't get certified, have to be in the program again next year if I continue teaching, and I'm out another $750. I suppose it makes more sense to just suck it up and finish all the awful work now, rather than cost myself $750 due to laziness.

It's just so hard to want to do anything. Here's how my day goes: up at 6. At school at 7:45. Work until 4, 5, 6...sometimes 7 or 8. Today I left at 4, because I had class tonight. Come home. Go to the gym. Come home. Take a shower, eat, and be at class in another town by 7:20. I come home again, it's already almost 10 - the time at which I have to go to bed if I want to get 8 hours of sleep.

I sit in class and fantasize about anything to escape from that which is my life. This week, I can't even look forward to the weekend, because I have to go take some test at seven in the morning on Saturday. What idiotic fool plans things like that? I can't imagine saying, "Well, I think we should have the group of 25-30 year olds arrive at seven o'clock on Saturday morning." "Why yes, fellow idiotic test planner, I agree that seven o'clock is a fine time to make people who have to go drink themselves blind on Friday to erase the dreadful week they just had arrive to take a test!"

Only one more thing to complain about, then I'll shut up: I have an extra car I need to get rid of. The parking Gestapo at my complex informed me that I can no longer take up two places. Fine. But what am I going to do with this car? I realize that I need to sell it - believe me, I could use the money - but I haven't the time nor the energy to deal with that. I'd be willing to sell this car for half of what it's worth just to get rid of it.

Ok, on to happier things now. My hair is finally starting to look like it's growing long. I have made the foolish decision to grow my hair out again. I'm tired of having to dry it each morning. When it's long, I can just put it in a ponytail or braids or something. Much easier.

I got new living room furniture. Not yet, but as soon as I get my December paycheck [I'm practically counting the hours to December 20 - payday and the last day of school before winter break!] I'm paying the other 2/3 and bringing it home. It's this gorgeous 1950's couch/chair set. I can't really describe it. I took photos of it; I'll post them as soon as I get them developed.

Winter break is coming up soon. I have from December 26 through January 3 - that's eight days - to go do something. I want to go somewhere I've never been. I don't have a lot of money, obviously, but I will have enough to go somewhere. I'd really like to take the new car on some kind of road trip, but I've gone through the Southeast too many times already, and driving most anywhere else wouldn't be very safe due to winter weather conditions. I could drive out West, but there aren't very many places I'm too interested in going. What I'd really like to do is go to Montreal. I don't know why, but the city is appealing to me.