Crying Time Again

I woke up at 5:45 AM this morning thinking about food and refreshments for the General CTA meeting. Then I thought about my El Molino mailing list and how I still had to send out reminders of the meeting and update the list. I got up showered and switched on my laptop only to find it had been turned off and would take another ten minutes to boot up. So I had breakfast. From 5:30 AM to 7 AM I updated the mailing list, tried unsuccessfully to attach the agenda to the El Molino group mailing, tried to email myself a plethora of documents- finally moving on to gmail after- yahoo never really could do the trick.

I worked on school work yesterday, Sunday from about 10 AM to 5 PM- with perhaps a half an break. When I got home I laid down with my last Tuesday and Thursday New York Times which I hadn't even seen. (6PM to 8PM) In between dozing I read and partially read any number of articles. I put another hour in after dinner- collecting old "To Kill A Mockingbird" curriculum and updating it- maybe 9 PM to 10 PM.

Progress Reports are due on Tuesday. Sunday I graded the journals for Period 1 and graded all of the World History tests and managed to finish the grades for both Periods one and three. That still leaves Periods 4, 5 and 6 for today. My aid is helping me now with Period 4. We are starting new novels today in all of my classes and I am scrabbling for curriculum, especially with the sophomores with a book that I have never taught and a class that I haven't taught in over five years.

Monday: Today- a full schedule of classes and finish marking journals and do grades. Email all those who need to be emailed. It appears that there are no meetings scheduled for today.

Tuesday after school at 2:3o PM I have an SST (student study team) meeting. I have to email Raul and ask him if I can go first so I can get out to drive to the General Union Meeting, which I am in charge of, at 3:30 PM. I will give the introduction and say the important things that I need to say, except at this point I am not sure what they are.

I knew that this year would be difficult. But it pissed me off a bit when I met Brenda last week and she said something like, "Oh, you are just down to one computer class." "I am down to zero computer classes, thanks to you." I didn't say it, but I felt it. She is the person who dropped this computer program here. And what bothers me is that she was telling herself that she was able to save one computer class, when that wasn't the reality. I know that the budget has had a severe impact on budgeting for schools. I know that technical classes are being dropped at all the schools. But at least have the sensitivity to realize that they are gone, that a good program has been dropped.

I am feeling a little sorry for myself in this year. Four English classes- full - and for me new curriculum at the Sophomore level. Maybe I am fortunate to have just one difficult class- but they are really difficult- it feels like all of the behavior problems are in this one sixth period. I would be much happier if I were teaching history. It is the class this year that I am really enjoying because I am challenging them with ideas instead of facts to memorize.