back to myself

Gosh, last night was hard. I seem to have accepted things more now. Not that I'm happy about it, but I guess, acknowledged it.

This was a long week. In addition to the personal stuff, all kinds of computer problems at school. Some of which caused me to be unable to update my teacher webpage. Which in turn caused parents to call and email to remind me that the site wasn't updated.

I am not required to keep a webpage with a weekly schedule, handouts, and homework list on it. Not required to keep a webpage at all. But I have one. I do it as an extra; you know, a student is absent, and so can check online what he or she's supposed to do. A parent can check it to see if junior really has done it, or if he or she's stretching the truth a bit when he or she says "I don't have any homework tonight."

But, you do something as a favor, and pretty soon folks start expecting it.

Then, I wasn't able to get emails for two days on my school account, and that didn't go over too well either.

I teach six classes a day. No prep period (yes, I do get paid extra for it), and I've been in at lunch every day for the last two weeks, working with students, helping them get their work finished or giving make up quizzes. I have meetings at least twice a week after school, often every afternoon but Friday. I work until it gets dark. I'd stay later, but my end of the school is under construction, so not only are all the lights out in the hallway , I can't drive close up to my classroom door like I used to. Because of the fences around the construction, I actually have to walk to the other end of the school (we have a school that is quite spread out; all the classroom doors open to the outside, not in a self-contained building), cross up through the basketball courts, and then back in the other direction to the parking lot. All the locker halls, which I could cut through, are closed and locked by 4:30 pm.

So, when a parent complains about me not updating my homework site, I want to scream.

I like my job... I love my job. I love the students, I love learning....but sometimes people forget that I sometimes don't have time to go to the bathroom until school is over. Sometimes people forget that I can't answer the phone until school is over. Sometimes people forget that reading and grading 150 essays takes more than a week to correct.

oops.

I am back to my regular grouchy self.

Thank goodness it's Friday.