Out of the Box

Please forgive me, I have been absent from this blog. I won't bore you with the details, but my "regular" schedule is no longer what I'm used to. Besides my responsibilities as an ESOL teacher, I also teach 2 'corrective' programs. The changes this year have taken a lot of energy and joy from my usual day. I am not facilitating clubs, although I will put together a student committee for Multicultural Day. I'm more involved in helping to facilitate a better school atmosphere through a set of interaction panels of students, parents, teachers and other staff. I believe this will be a major player in achieving the positive academic improvements we need.

As teachers, our daily duties also include "management", discipline, and order. For the most part, our students are a normal bunch- some good, days, some not-so-good, some horrendous. Fortunately,the horrendous days are increasing in number. Even at lower grade levels, there are some children who have issues that cannot be solved by the school, and possibly, not by the parents. Some kids need therapy, medication, toughlove, or any combination. Teachers are expected to be able to enthusiastically convey the necessary information the children need to learn, as well as "do well on the Test".

Besides teaching, compiling bindersful of data, in the most recent grid from the latest "messenger, planning further professional development", and dealing with the inconsistent heat extremes in the building, other myriad building issues, rodents, creepy-crawlers, and being given the newest "fix" on Thursday, to teach on Monday.

Is it any wonder this blog was on hold? We just had our 5th snow day of the season. There is a 3-day weekend ahead. I can breathe, sleep, and eat. I even made cookies! Everyone's plan books are in school, because we've been out since Wednesday. Who would've thunk it? I'm not an on-line planner, although I'm sure younger staff members do that all the time. I'm old-school.

Anyway, this rant has ended. The blog is ressurrected. I hope someone reads it!