Monday November 10th

I'm beginning to think that the school is out to do me in. I wrote the other day about the teachers that they made leave to other high schools in Killeen, right? (If you don't know what I'm talking about refer to Friday, November 7th post.)

So... here's my day:

First rattle out of the box, I took my computer to the technicians so that it could be reimaged. The thing was acting completely up and they asked me if it was okay to put on just Mac. They know that I'm not a Mac person - I'm more Windows based, but I said - sure. Go ahead. I wasn't really pleased with that, but oh well. I'll get used to it. At least now my work computer has about 80 gig of space.

Yeah... well, I reported to my first period class today in English 4 with Mr. Myers. I think that it would have really been an excellent class if he'd been there. Yes, you read that right. He was there, but only for a little bit to set the substitute right before he left for the day. He had a molar that had cracked and had a dentist appointment. Unfortunately, I know exactly how he feels because one of mine broke a little over a year ago. Painful. Anyhoo.... there's a substitute there and I'm trying to explain who I am and why I'm taking over for Mrs. Gibson (the inclusion teacher that was there before). So, I just took over the class. They were going over Chaucer. CHAUCER! Oh my goodness. I haven't read Chaucer in like 20 years! So... they were making a character bio/log of the Friar. So, we did that and helped them out with that. We went through it step by step. All in all, not too bad of a class, except the only problem was that too many of them laid their heads down and decided not to do jack-crap.

2nd period: Is my PLC (Professional Learning Community) period. Basically, all the English teachers get together and plan or learn new things or whatever. I was talking with a fellow teacher (Mr. Finnen) he's the one that I teach 3rd and 6th with and he somewhat gave me an idea of what he had heard that was going to happen. I prayed that it wouldn't, because for the most part, it was a bad bad BAD thing. Dang, it... if he wasn't right.

3rd period: Mr. Finnen and I go ahead and teach to the kids... new vocab. words and whatnot and talk to them about their tests from last week... etc. Normal stuff. Nothing big.

Lunch - wasn't enough food, but I ate anyway and drank all my tea. (I was hungry for the rest of the day)

4th and 5th period: Ms. Michel and I taught together - as usual. We had decent classes today. We had them busy all period. (Thank goodness).

6th period: went back to Mr Finnen's class (on the other side of the school) and continued with our day as usual.

7th period: I was asked earlier in the day to go see Mrs. Key and see what she had found out about my schedule. She said that she'd know what was going to happen by my conference period. So... first, I went to go get my computer from the techs. They said that it would be done around an hour after I turned it in, but I didn't want to press the issue or rush them, so I just dealt without a computer all day. Then I went to talk to Mrs. Key. My boss, Mr. Sibberson was there and it was an interesting discussion. Basically, this is what was decided:

I'll lay out the schedule here:

1st period - Mr. Myers. (12th grade English)
2nd period - PLC
3rd period - Mr. Finnen (9th grade English) and Ms. Witt (11th grade English) - I'll explain.
Lunch
4th period - Ms. Michel (10th grade English)
5th period - Ms. Michel (10th grade English) and Mr. Justice (11th grade English)
6th period - Mr. Finne (9th grade English)
7th period - Conference

Okay. Now... this is what I was told: There will be an aide that somewhat follows the same schedule as I do. However, during 3rd period and 6th period, we will be switching out -- yes.... like every other day, we'd go back and forth. It could be every other day... it could be that period - we each have half. It could mean every other week. Interesting huh?

But the really neat thing is how our school is set up. It's a BIG school. On the classes that we are supposed to switch out - oh... those are like MAJORLY across the school. It's not like a cute little jaunt down a couple of doors and you're there. Oh no... these are across the freaking school.

Oh... and did you notice. I went from 2 classes - English 1 and English 2 - to having all the English classes - 9th through 12th. Yeah!

It's not the school's fault - it's the administration that have caused this issue (the ones that aren't at the school - like the superintendent (yeah... the guy that's leaving in January that's screwing with our school and making it difficult to do a good job).

I'm stressed. Very stressed. Tis why I have a beer sitting beside me at the moment.

~MJ