"Don't Leave the House Today"

So, I just got home from school, had a MUCH NEEDED cigarette, and was about to write here about the TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD day that I had at school today when I got a phone call from my parents. They let me know that

I'M AN UNCLE!!!

Yep, I'm an uncle for the first time [well, second time counting Brian's brother and sister-in-law...]!! My younger brother and his wife gave birth to Emily Rose Barbus just a couple of hours ago!! The second that I hung up the phone, I just started crying - partially because I'm so happy about this news [she was actually due to arrive 5 days ago], and partially because of the ROTTEN day that I had today.

So, I knew walking into school today that I would be in a 4/5 grade classroom for the first couple of hours of the day while the regular teacher was off visiting nearby school, and I wasn't looking forward to it all that much. The subbing part of my job is just the worst. I hate it. A few weeks ago I was in this very same classroom for the last hour of the day and walked out of there thinking, "That's it. I quit." Well, I got to school this morning to find out that 2 other teachers called out sick, and neither of their subs had shown up yet. Eventually, one of the subs showed up, but the other, for one of the 1st grade classes, NEVER showed up.

So, my time in the 4/5 room was so bad that at one point one of the assistant teachers in the school came in the room and asked everyone to quiet it down. Then, a bit later, another school support person came in the room and said that she had received a call down in the office from a classroom COMPLAINING ABOUT THE NOISE LEVEL IN THE ROOM THAT I WAS IN. Oh, christ. Then, round about 9:40, the regular classroom teacher comes walking in the room [the students were in the middle of independent center work] and immediately yells out, "Oh, no! What is going on in here?!? This is unacceptable behavior, boys and girls." I felt about 3 mm tall. The kids truly were out of control. Part of the problem was that the Special Ed teacher at school was supposed to work with 2 of the groups during center time [9-9:20 & 9:20-9:40 - there are two rotations], but couldn't be in there during that time because she had to take over the 1st grade classroom that was without a sub. SO, those two groups that she was supposed to work with had nothing to do. I tried to get them organized and doing something, but, I don't know what they should be doing... at all. Plus, I'm running around the room answering questions and putting out fires left and right.

SO, as the teacher is chewing her class out [and she tells the kids, "You owe Mr. Eric an apology," to which I shrink even smaller...] I sneak out, run to the bathroom, try to compose myself, and run into the 1st grade classroom, which I have to take over for the rest of the day. I get there and the Special Ed teacher looks at me and says, "Good luck. There's no real lesson plan. I've got to go..." Sure enough, there were just some scribbled notes from the sub that had been in there the day before [this crazy old woman who wears brightly colored sweaters, is MANIACALLY cheery, and is, apparently, a clown on the side...] saying Keep the day simple! Have the students work in their red folders. Let them draw! Read them a story! Do math pages 135-138! Computers at 1:20!

Ok.

Well, the one "good" thing about this was that this was the class that Miles had last year. I know/knew these kids like the back of my hand. So, I had them finish up their "red folder work", read them a story, and took them down to lunch. I didn't get to eat all of my lunch because I had to show this support staff woman what I was going to do that afternoon since I was stuck in this classroom for the rest of the day. What I was SUPPOSED TO DO, which this woman took over for me, was a Reading is Fundamental [aka RIF] free book distribution. This one woman at school got the whole program going at the start of the year, and then pretty much handed it over to me to take care of. Each class made a list of books they wanted, we ordered 3 books for every student [there are around 240 kids at school], and then have been letting them choose one book to take home each month [there are 3 distributions - January, February, and March]. Tuesday, the 4th and 5th graders came to me in the afternoon to get a book. Wednesday, the 2nd and 3rd graders came to get a book, and today it was Kindergarten and 1st grade. So, actually, the class that I was subbing in got to go down this afternoon to get books - which, gratefully, took up some time. Then, I was to take the kids to the computer lab for the last 30 minutes of the day. I got them all ready, we got our backpacks and coats, and walked down the hall to find that the computer lab guy wasn't there - he had apparently told the teacher last week that their computer time would be cancelled today.

Great.

So, the kids were all pissed off and I brought them back to the classroom and let them have "free choice time". I said that they couldn't use the computers in the classroom, but the substitute assistant teacher [who was there for the girl with autism] let them use them anyway.

UGH. It was a day full of kids yelling at each other, hitting each other, calling each other names, crying, my losing my temper and yelling - and it fucking sucked.

I hate that damn job.

Oh, and to make things worse, after school I went back to the empty classroom where my desk is with the desks of a couple of other support staff people, and a mother of a student came in to talk to the "outreach consultant" - whose desk is next to mine. Apparently she is sick of her abusive husband and wants to leave but doesn't know how. This woman's daughter is an adorable, sweet, wonderfully behaved little 1st grader and it PAINS me to think that she has to go through this crap. This is one of the reasons that I just can't work in an innercity school anymore. These sorts of stories, and there are WAY more stories than you would think just like this, make me so upset that I can't deal.

BUT, all of that aside,

I'M AN UNCLE!!

[What a freakin' rollercoaster of a day. Tomorrow better be A LOT better.]

Hail to the Chief

The principal at my school [who is new this year, and not making any friends... more on this another time...] is on crack. Here's the proof:

He made me ACTING PRINCIPAL in his absence tomorrow.

Holy crap.

So, in the morning today I had heard rumours that the principal was going to be asking me to do this, and I had already, in my mind, decided to "respectfully decline" the "offer". [The librarian (my buddy) had told me, "Oh, c'mon. You should just do it. You'd get to sit there all day and do nothing... and get paid a little extra for it."]

ME? Principal? This is my first year as a teacher - and not even a full-fledged teacher at this school. I don't know district policies, let alone what to do in any NUMBER of situations that might occur on school site. I'm completely clueless when it comes to ANY kind of school protocol. It's just not my job, and not anything that I've had to deal with in the past. Well, as I passed by the principal's office in the afternoon, he called me in and TOLD me that I would be filling in for him tomorrow. TOLD me. How the hell could I turn it down? He then proceeded to plan my whole day, even KNOWINGLY scheduling me for multiple things AT THE SAME TIME. Sure, it's only doing recess duties, and sitting in on rowdy classrooms while the meek music teacher is in them, but it looks like the secretary may be out sick tomorrow, so I will have to man the office all day, too. Oh, plus I'm scheduled to be in a classroom [subbing] for an hour at one point. I'm, literally, going to have to eat my lunch at 10:00am. Oh, wait, that's one of the times that I'm scheduled for recess AND office duty. Scratch that. I guess I'll be eating lunch at 9:30am.

PRAY that nothing goes wrong tomorrow.

The principal gave me his cell phone number, and told me to "not hesitate to call", but the last time he put someone else in charge and they tried to call him he "couldn't get cell phone reception..."

PRAY that the principal's cell phone gets good reception tomorrow.

P.S. I have a HUGE, growing list of things to write about here, and will hopefully commit some of them to bits&bytes this weekend...