Wild Ride

Hallelujah, it's 71 degrees outside, and the heaters are cranked up in our classrooms. Oy!

It's so hot and stuffy. Not sweater weather, for sure.

The Internet connections have been sporadic, which wrecks lesson plans and completion of the yearbook. Irritating.

The kids are crazy.

Apparently 23 of them needed explicit instructions reminding them to putting their names on their projects. I guess I'm going to have to start adding that directive to the instructions.

I have so many papers to grade because it's the end of the quarter. I have a long prep tomorrow because we are on an exam schedule where classes last 90 minutes. Just when I think I am getting through one pile, I find another something else I have to do. Will this semester ever end?

Just so you know...I might be losing my mind.

My supervisor finished my last visitation for evaluation today. It was a humdinger. I had planned on a short review of some exam points, and then the students were going to continue working on some online exercises to prepare for the exam. While they were doing that, I planned on doing several different things at my desk, but that obviously didn't happen. The class where the evaluation occurred cannot truly be trusted to stay on task. And did I mention the students have been crazy?

I thought things were going really well. I was clearing off some of the boogers from my desk, that is, wrapping up things before the end of the quarter with some students, monitoring what students were doing, and answering questions. It was kind of chaotic for a while! At one point I looked over and saw one of my lovelies SLEEPING! Two desks in front of my supervisor!

That moment just defines everything, doesn't it?

Apparently it was more than a moment. Let's call it a power nap.

And I thought the defining moment was going to be from the day before when the supervisor observed--and I did not--Cosa Una, my aptly nicknamed 7th grade yearbook boy, chewing on the biggest wad of gum you've ever seen. We have a serious school-wide ban on gum that even includes the teachers. It's a pretty big deal. It's not that I don't think gum isn't a menace to our beautiful, new campus, it's just that when we have a gazillion pages due and a hitch at every turn, he could have been chewing tobacco, and I wouldn't have noticed. Please don't judge.

No, really, I thought I had it in the bag when the supervisor came by a month ago and one of the Joses so eloquently explained how literature circles worked and what his group was doing. I was so proud. (I love the Joses!) There were 33 students working in differentiated groups, discussing literature! Major engagement!

Some days I'm on top of my game, and then other days I wonder, even 12 years later, if this is the right job for me. But that's how this gig is. Just one big roller coaster ride.

Man, I want off this ride!