Getting back to work feels good and frustrating at the same time. I have said before that those long stretches of time without anything to do aren't great for me. I sleep too much and then get restless and complain about not being able to sleep. Its a vicious circle.
One of the people I work best with is gone on maternity leave. She's technically been on bed rest since September, and probably won't have the baby until next week. Her long term sub seems like a nice enough lady, but you get to talking to her and realize that she spends most of her brain power on trying to figure out where in the small town social hierarchy everyone fits. She name drops and gossips about who's done what with their house and who married or dated who. Working with LD kids who come from poverty, she tends to be very judgmental. The kids pick up on it and most don't want to be around her. So now my seminar class have five new members. Which means I need to get them set up with composition books (because my kids do not get to sit and do nothing, we have assessments coming up and we are going to work on some skills).
A student I've been supervising on a computerized math program seems like he's ready to go back to the classroom. But the person who knows how to dig into the guts of the program says he's been gaming the system so even though it looks like he's done the lessons, he isn't passing. I'm not sure what we are going to do with him now. I love it when I don't have all the information on something and then end up looking like an idiot.
I also need to address something with a para. She's been filling out worksheets and tests, and then basically letting the kids copy her work when they get stuck. This isn't learning. This is getting the assignment done and in, but it isn't learning. Unfortunately, the kids she does this with in senior English did much better on their final that the kids I helped with extra clues such as page numbers, multiple choice answers to what would have been open ended questions, and eliminating some redundant test sections.
I also need to talk with that teacher about her assignments. They don't pass the stranger test. She uses source material that the kids don't have access to and she expects them to remember a piece they read two years ago(if they attended Iola schools for that year) to study this year. This teacher is older than dirt, been around forever and smart, really knows her Shakespeare. I, however, taught science. I know Shakespeare wrote in iambic pentameter and that's about it. I am supposedly a co-teacher, with no input into the units studied, skills accessed or grades given, with the modifications I suggest for lower functioning, slower working students treated like incomplete work, with IEP stipulations ignored in the grading process, and with a para who lets kids copy work.
And to top it all off, the teachers are not contractually obligated to make and keep lesson plans, so they often don't have down what they intend to do until that day, which means I get the info as the kid gets it, which makes thoughtful alteration of assignments very difficult.
And I don't care how annoying a student it, to say they are a waste of space and air and shouldn't have been born offends me. If that's how she feels about students, she needs to retire.
So, with all this swirling around me, I have decided to resume Yoga. I use Hulu to watch a routine to do. It helps. Makes my muscles hurt a bit and leaves me feeling mellow and relaxed. Tonight my little guys did it with me. They are funny to watch. When they play they are all energy and motion, but they have no balance or coordination in the yoga poses. Good times.
Tomorrow I have IEP and staff meetings and to gracefully figure out how to navigate all these things without pissing in anyone's corn flakes.
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