I'm not working smart. I can't say I am entirely to blame, but if I was doing more thinking ahead, my life would have been easier the past few weeks. The principal at my school is very disorganized and makes decisions on the fly, which leads to a lot of chaos. However, I know this about her, so usually when she sends down a mandate I ignore it until I'm sure someone is following up on it. The problem has been with grading. I had set up my gradebook and was trying to enter enough grades so that the kids would have an idea about how they are doing. Feedback is really important for the kids because they get a feeling for how much effort they need to put in. I had entered a test and 2 assignments. Almost all of my students failed the test. Most of them did well on the assignment. Then, schedules started changing. The principal is trying so hard to balance the classes and make every class less than 30. This is a first for me and I support her 100%. But when she said she was going to do that, I ignored it as so much bullshit. I entered grades, and invested time in the seating charts. Incredibly enough, it is actually happening. It's absolute chaos. I never know who is going to be on my roster. Taking attendance every day is such an adventure, and the time I have invested in grading and seating charts is lost forever! I threw all the papers away and gave up on the grading. (The grades don't follow the kids when they change classes, so it's an exercise in futility to try.)
Instead of spending time on that, I have been cleaning my room, organizing materials and all the stuff that keeps popping up in my box, some of which I need and most of which I don't. My room and my desk are a lot more organized and clean. That's a good thing.
Yesterday the attendance clerk sent out an email saying the master schedule was going to change, which means teachers' schedules are changing. One of the teachers was crying in the office after school because she has to stop teaching reading because she is not qualified, so they are moving her to 8th grade science, for which she is also not qualified. (They are trying to make her quit.) Teachers are having social studies and math and reading classes added to their day just like that, and everyone is pretty upset. Teachers like me are the ones that benefit... all of my classes are below 30 now, for the first time in my 7 years of teaching.
I have my hours written down but will have to log them later. It's time to get ready for work.
Instead of spending time on that, I have been cleaning my room, organizing materials and all the stuff that keeps popping up in my box, some of which I need and most of which I don't. My room and my desk are a lot more organized and clean. That's a good thing.
Yesterday the attendance clerk sent out an email saying the master schedule was going to change, which means teachers' schedules are changing. One of the teachers was crying in the office after school because she has to stop teaching reading because she is not qualified, so they are moving her to 8th grade science, for which she is also not qualified. (They are trying to make her quit.) Teachers are having social studies and math and reading classes added to their day just like that, and everyone is pretty upset. Teachers like me are the ones that benefit... all of my classes are below 30 now, for the first time in my 7 years of teaching.
I have my hours written down but will have to log them later. It's time to get ready for work.
The minute you start realizing that you are not working smart is the minute you start working smarter. I applaud your decision to ignore most edicts until further follow up, even if it didn't work out so well on the whole balancing classes thing.
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