Do you ever feel as if all you do is work, work, work, and work some more and somewhere in between there you end up sleeping a little.
Maybe even fit in food once in awhile.
I hate that 5th grade goes to lunch at 10:55am - 11:35am. I'm not hungry at that time and by the time I am hungry it's too late and then I'm not hungry again because my stomach devoured itself or something. Then I get home - which has no food and no maid to cook and get right to work and forget to eat again until it's too late and it's time for bed again.
This is my life right now.
Perhaps I can scrounge up some macaroni and cheese.
Three weeks until winter break....heaven I say Christmas - just because I believe in that the rest of the world may not. Time to sleep.
Love,
Katie
Monday, December 05, 2005
Friday, December 02, 2005
You have got to be kidding...
Okay I know teaching is hard. I've always thought it was hard - however I wasn't aware it was this HARD!!! And to be quite honest I think I was doing okay until the other day. We all know Math is not my strong point - and of course at the school I'm at they seperate the kids by ability level (in my opinion that is stupid) and I have the "gifted kids". You can called them gifted - I will just call them regular old kids.
Anyway - the other day I sit down with the rest of the team to find out where I should be headed with this class - I mean their gifted - what do I know about being gifted in Math? Not much. So we are talking and the principal comes in and asks what we are talking about. After we tell her she said thats good because she was just headed down here to talk to me about math. I guess a parent (if you can call her that) called and was "concerned" about her daughter's math class. She thinks we should be doing Pre-Algebra (however I am doing the unit on percents and ratios which was instructed to me by the previous teacher). Anyway to make a really long story short I end up talking to this parent later. I have heard enough horror stories about this particular parent to literally make me feel sick about the thought of her. So I call her up and this lady just digs into me. Wants to know what's going on - why are we doing percents it's so beneath these kids - her daughter isn't happy - even said I was raising her daughter's blood pressure - blah blah blah blah. Than had the NERVE to say what I was doing ISN'T APPROPRIATE. If I had a $1.00 everytime she said the words "not appropriate" I would be freaking rich. She does not think 5th graders should be doing math rotations (where they work in small groups) coloring and measuring. Okay - can I just say the measuring was when they had to make a scale drawing of the classroom because I was showing them how ratios relate to scales. Second they were coloring when I was having them shade in a hundredths grid to show percent. These are all grade appropriate activities - so damn appropriate I took them right out of the book under the "enrichment section". Anyway she told me none of the kids are happy and about the inappropriateness of my lessons. I cut in and said I disagree that SOME of the kids are happy - I've talked to their parents. Oh and than on top of it when I said I was going to give the kids an assessment test she wanted to know why I was doing that. "Why don't you look in the gradebook" and "I think it would be practical if you called the prior teacher".
Lady what the hell do you know about teaching? You do assessment testing all year round. And if you think you could come in and make sense of the prior teacher's gradebook be my freaking guest! No one could interpret it for me - not even the other 5th grade teachers. So needless to say I kept my cool. Okay maybe that isn't needless to say because MY BLOOD PRESSURE WAS RISING - and I really just wanted to defend myself. I spoke very little - just listened to her vent - tried to fend off her ridicule of me and my teaching style. By the very end I was exhusted - and I broke down. After I got off the phone of course. I would never give that lady the satisfaction of doing that to me in front of her. But I mean I broke down. I was having those heartwrenching type sobs. Wondering what the hell I was doing here and if I really know what I'm doing. It was awful - and her daughter has been awful in the class as well. There is so much more to tell to the story but I'll stop here.
Anyway I HATE the thought of having to deal with this woman. Hate it. It makes me not want to go into school. It's been a challenge to get up the past few days and go. I feel sick right around math. And get this - I have talked with a previous teacher who said this lady made her cry about once a week.
Thankfully the principal came in after my call because she heard about it and gave me a big hug. I told her I felt so unprofessional crying like I was but I couldn't help it. She said she completely understood and told me about other stories about this woman. She finished it up by saying I was doing a great job and they were very lucky to have me and that if this lady is so unhappy that she can remove her daughter from our school and take her elsewhere. However they have been telling this lady that for years and she won't.....why? (Oh and did I mention the mother is a lawyer so she uses this annoying voice that makes you feel like your a small bug?) . We are going to meet with witch together to go over her daughter's assessment test (which if I just might say was only a 70%).
I can't stand her and I hate the way she's made me feel about my job. This is supposed to be my dream - not a nightmare that I dread going to.
Oh well.
Love,
Katie
Anyway - the other day I sit down with the rest of the team to find out where I should be headed with this class - I mean their gifted - what do I know about being gifted in Math? Not much. So we are talking and the principal comes in and asks what we are talking about. After we tell her she said thats good because she was just headed down here to talk to me about math. I guess a parent (if you can call her that) called and was "concerned" about her daughter's math class. She thinks we should be doing Pre-Algebra (however I am doing the unit on percents and ratios which was instructed to me by the previous teacher). Anyway to make a really long story short I end up talking to this parent later. I have heard enough horror stories about this particular parent to literally make me feel sick about the thought of her. So I call her up and this lady just digs into me. Wants to know what's going on - why are we doing percents it's so beneath these kids - her daughter isn't happy - even said I was raising her daughter's blood pressure - blah blah blah blah. Than had the NERVE to say what I was doing ISN'T APPROPRIATE. If I had a $1.00 everytime she said the words "not appropriate" I would be freaking rich. She does not think 5th graders should be doing math rotations (where they work in small groups) coloring and measuring. Okay - can I just say the measuring was when they had to make a scale drawing of the classroom because I was showing them how ratios relate to scales. Second they were coloring when I was having them shade in a hundredths grid to show percent. These are all grade appropriate activities - so damn appropriate I took them right out of the book under the "enrichment section". Anyway she told me none of the kids are happy and about the inappropriateness of my lessons. I cut in and said I disagree that SOME of the kids are happy - I've talked to their parents. Oh and than on top of it when I said I was going to give the kids an assessment test she wanted to know why I was doing that. "Why don't you look in the gradebook" and "I think it would be practical if you called the prior teacher".
Lady what the hell do you know about teaching? You do assessment testing all year round. And if you think you could come in and make sense of the prior teacher's gradebook be my freaking guest! No one could interpret it for me - not even the other 5th grade teachers. So needless to say I kept my cool. Okay maybe that isn't needless to say because MY BLOOD PRESSURE WAS RISING - and I really just wanted to defend myself. I spoke very little - just listened to her vent - tried to fend off her ridicule of me and my teaching style. By the very end I was exhusted - and I broke down. After I got off the phone of course. I would never give that lady the satisfaction of doing that to me in front of her. But I mean I broke down. I was having those heartwrenching type sobs. Wondering what the hell I was doing here and if I really know what I'm doing. It was awful - and her daughter has been awful in the class as well. There is so much more to tell to the story but I'll stop here.
Anyway I HATE the thought of having to deal with this woman. Hate it. It makes me not want to go into school. It's been a challenge to get up the past few days and go. I feel sick right around math. And get this - I have talked with a previous teacher who said this lady made her cry about once a week.
Thankfully the principal came in after my call because she heard about it and gave me a big hug. I told her I felt so unprofessional crying like I was but I couldn't help it. She said she completely understood and told me about other stories about this woman. She finished it up by saying I was doing a great job and they were very lucky to have me and that if this lady is so unhappy that she can remove her daughter from our school and take her elsewhere. However they have been telling this lady that for years and she won't.....why? (Oh and did I mention the mother is a lawyer so she uses this annoying voice that makes you feel like your a small bug?) . We are going to meet with witch together to go over her daughter's assessment test (which if I just might say was only a 70%).
I can't stand her and I hate the way she's made me feel about my job. This is supposed to be my dream - not a nightmare that I dread going to.
Oh well.
Love,
Katie
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