Running the Race

I've made it to Saturday. This past week blended all of my responsibilities so starting Wednesday not only were my days full but my evenings too. I attended the SCEC meeting (California Teachers Association Local) on Wednesday night. Our board member gave me a nice recognition for a letter that I had written to the membership and it always feels good being recognized. But the next day I received a nasty email from one of our members. Even though it was from a member known for his nastiness. Not only was it nasty, it was complete rude and off the wall. I merely responded that "I do not give much credence to anything that includes a rude and unfounded personal attack." Nevertheless it hurts to get such a thing. Overall I have received such great support from the members. And many realize the great amount of work that the job entails and are willing to pitch in.

Thursday was "Back to School" night. I had been working on memorizing all 160 names of my students but I learned the sophomores first, since some of them are already testing their limits. As usual I had an early parent who wanted to get all of the information about how her son was doing. I took a quick look into my grade book and I saw no major problems. Generally this early in the year it is hard to tell about kids. Of course certain ones stick out as having potential difficulty, but that is not the purpose of Back to School Night. Period 1 (BTS night) parents flowed into the room. I improvised a spiel. "Look at my website...Yes, grades will be posted but not for a week or so.... I will try to contact you on a regular basis by email..." And so on. I try to enlist their help to read the papers that their children are writing. "Don't be afraid to read you child's paper and give them help. This is a team approach. We are all educating the children. You can put a few marks on the paper so I know that you have been helping... But please do not write the paper for them." Things like that.

One parent asked me, "Do you teach diagramming of sentences?" "I could diagram a sentence in my sleep because I was taught by nuns who demanded us to know diagramming from about third grade. But no, I do not teach diagramming because..."I won't go into it now. She answers that "I am an editor and I use diagramming every day in my work." I answer diplomatically, "Well, I promise to use certain elements of diagramming to teach sentence structure and I will talk to the other English teachers about it." But also as a teacher Back to School night is very valuable to us. One parent of a high functioning autistic kid gave me an enormous amount of information that will assist me in working with him in the classroom. Even though the class periods with parents were only 12 minutes long, it felt as if I had put in another mini-day.

Friday night was my "duty". We must supervise two or three school events per year. I chose this football game because it was early in the year. I have almost no interest in any kind of sport- maybe horse racing if I am gambling. This was the football game between Analy and Terra Linda. I got there at 6 PM and given a choice for my post. I took a lonely corner of the field. I was able to sit and read my book about Moscow for about an hour when the JV game finished. The principal came over and said, "I'll trade you places." "You take that area over there by the fence where they sneak in." As the Varsity game began, sure enough one boy and two girls came in though that hole in the fence. I said, "I'm sorry, but it's my job to make sure that nobody comes though that fence." They were so polite. "Well, we can pay for the game right here," they said. I said "no" and had to send them back out. From 7 PM to 9 PM I stood watching the game as the mercury plummeted.

Half time was at 9 and I wondered over to chat with another teacher and used her iphone to call home. (When I arrived home from school, I had just enough time to put together a delicious dinner. ) Well, I assumed it was delicious. I had to leave it in the oven and report for "duty". Indeed it was delicious and there were leftovers. I was relieved. As this teacher and I chatted a parent came to us and said, "I heard that there is some heavy drinking over there in the bleachers." I went over to the center of the storm. Students held paper and plastic cups but it was difficult to tell if anyone was drinking. Some Juniors were talking about something that they didn't want me to hear. Did I mention the name "Zack"? I only heard it. From the top tier of the bleachers they were dropping cups and chips on people who were exiting the game. They were rude but I could not ascertain whether they had been drinking.

I made my way down to my spot and saw the vice principal walking further down past the end zone. I chatted with him and he said some kids were throwing things from the top and I told him of my experience. As he was walking away I saw a kid climbing the high fence and he had just gotten in. He was angry. I called for the VP, then I yelled to the kid. "I'm taking care of business." He says. Fortunately the VP heard me and came back and called for the kid to come down. At first he wouldn't and I could picture a big fight about to happen. Then he thought better of it and came down to talk, but he still wanted "to take care of business." He says, "Those guys up there were throwing chips on my truck..." I took his photo and he said something very rude to me. The VP said, "I've just called the police and you better get out of here before they arrive." He left.

In the intervening moments a player had gotten badly injured on the field. The game was delayed for about a half hour. When I asked someone said "he blew out his knee." That is all I know. By 10 PM the game had started again but I had been on my feet for three hours and my knees were starting to bother me. At 10:10 PM a merciful principal came up and said, "You can go home now." Sweet words.