"No More Pencils, No More Books"

We reached the end of the school year finally. And not a day too soon, I say. We had maybe fifteen students show up for the two hours of school this morning, and the rest of the day was devoted to organizing the classrooms, helping my coworkers finish their journal abstracts, and complaining bitterly about some of the stupid crap we have to deal with. I also found out how the summer will work. I will be a floater, meaning I get to follow the trouble students around most of the time. I'm not terribly happy about this, but it's money. And if the kids get too bad, I'll just duct tape them to something. We've got a few hefty rolls o' duct tape around there somewhere.

Tomorrow is a day of recovery. I'm going to sleep in, do laundry, and maybe clean up my room. Thursday will be the day I head back over to school to take care of some stuff I didn't do this afternoon and help get ready for summer school. I also need to email a couple of parents about history books which weren't returned. Such is the burden of being the only returning history teacher.

Honestly, the number of teachers not returning next year is pretty surprising. I know that our job is fairly stressful and has a tendency to burn people out, but I didn't think it'd be that bad. Admittedly, I think several of the teachers are simply looking for different schools that pay better or don't require the extra effor that's necessary to teach students with disabilities. It can be a tiring job, that's for sure. And I think if I had less patience, I'd have quit myself. But I really do like my coworkers (those who're staying), I like the students for the most part, and I think I can learn a lot from working there.

It sounds like I have the apartment to myself for most of the weekend. This, to me, says "party," but I'll be damned if I actually know how to plan and put together one of those.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Ryan Adams, "Friends"