I swear, today was okay. Not awesome or fantastic, but definitely fine and okay.
But apparently, that whole synergy thing is coming into play: being greater than the sum of its parts. But what if most of the parts sucked ass?
You be the judge of my day:
1. Mr Cute Teacher is officially engaged.
I am happy for him. Really. He is a very good guy (obviously, or else he wouldn't be my pretend boyfriend) and deserves something great like this. But, you know, still a bit heartbreaking for little me. :)
On the up side, he hung out in my room at lunch, and we talked about that plus travel and stuff. It was very enjoyable. He is a friend. Which does make me happy.
2. Right after school, I had to talk to a parent on the phone. This parent has been a pain in my ass the entire year. One of the parents who wants to put the blame for their child's averageness or failure on everything except, oh, I don't know, THEIR OWN DAMN KID.
After conversations like that, my heart and fury are still going strong, and I keep replaying things in my mind, trying to convince myself that I am the sane one here, and that I am doing a good job, and that if she doesn't want to agree with that, nothing I can do will change her mind. But still, it rankles. A lot. Most especially since I am so much better than last year, at the entire teaching thing. Apparently the parent relating still needs some work. I had a parent like this last year, too. I try to reassure myself that since there's only one each year who is on my case, that it's them and not me. You know? That there's always going to be a parent like that. I know that other teachers can back me on that one.
3. I just had another conversation that was totally ridiculous. Did you know that when one person suggests friendly-ly (huh?) that you should email someone, that that equals "going after other women's boyfriends"? Yeah. Complete outlandish bullshit.
Again, the issue is clearly not with me, but it still gets my righteous indignation flowing, and I have a hard time letting that go.
4. I had to proctor the l!stening s3lection for the eighth grade ex@m this morning. I had to yell at them to get them to quiet down and get serious again. And then, of course, the p@ssage had two different terms that are funny to urban adolescents, so they all giggled and snickered--in an obnoxious, disrespectful way, not all cute and innocent--and I had to stop reading and yell some more.
5. I gave a last-minute pep talk/chant to Class 3 this morning, and I felt a rush of love and affection and pride in all the work that we've done.
6. In talking with my colleague teachers about the upcoming bookstudy, I am finding that I am well-prepared and organized. Three weeks of lessons already mapped out! Lots of materials AND plans to actually use them!
7. I ran a bunch of errands after school: drop books at the library, run to the bank to deposit the check from a workshop, a stop at Rite Aid for homegoods, and then finally a grocery run. When home, I immediately made a huge salad, washed down with fresh orange juice. Yum.
8. Scrubs is on tonight!
9. Durr, I almost forgot this one: I checked my grades from last semester, and I got an A- in both my classes. Yay!
(My GPA is still only 3.6 because of the freak C last spring. All my other grades are As or A-'s, with at least one A+. See? I'm smart and I swear that C doesn't still piss me off...)
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See? I'm really not trying to feel that my day was stupid, but it sure does sound like that when I lay it all out like that. But honestly, I am trying (and mostly succeeding) in focusing on the good stuff.
4 comments:
I heard the other teachers complaining about one of "the words" the 8th graders cracked up about. Be assured that the class you proctored was not the only one to find it worthy of giggles and snorts.
I gotta read the 7th grade passage tomorrow. Hopefully it won't illicit the same reaction.
OK, either I'm really naive, or I am blessed with an exceedingly good class who is equally naive- but what word did they laugh at?
(I know this is a stupid post, but I read that stupid long thing twice and I'm stumped. I do know by the end of the second read I was kinda hoping the parrot would die!)
First: "cr@cker" + white teacher reading + historical racial term + nonwhite students = rude snickers
Second: "b@lls." self explanatory. :)
It makes me sad that parents blame the teacher for their child's (as you said) "averageness". I have a coworker who had some parents that totally blamed her for their child's lack of ability. Of course, when their other child had a different first grade teacher they used that to prove their point. It had nothing to do with the fact that the second child is actually bright, and the first child is not.
I am excited for you that you are doing a book study. What book are you doing? I think I must have missed it earlier.
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