Blogging at Work: The Most Dangerous Game

Yesterday I took the day off from work. Why you ask, when I have such a strong sense of responsibility and commitment to the molding of young minds? Because on Tuesday my blood pressure was at 142 over 100. For those of you not familiar with the measurement of blood pressure, that means my head was about to explode. Literally.

I spent the entire day in my mother's recliner watching horror films because I couldn't stand up without knocking into large pieces of furniture or wanting to vomit on my cat. It's a sad day when you're home sick and you can't even read because your head hurts so bad. Poor, sad, lonely books...

Last night, however exhausted that I was, I couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned for hours, having nightmares about going in to work this morning. I know I haven't commented much lately about my job but that's because I'm making a valiant attempt at being positive. The problem with that is that I'm surrounded by a sea of negativity on a daily basis because just about everyone on this staff is convinced this school is going to fold within mere weeks. My dreams began with a normal day at work with small things going wrong on a regular basis, then administration lurking in the corners to make sure I wasn't making unauthorized use of the ladies' room. Then they morphed into full on REM cycle hallucinations of coworkers being hacked to bits by administrators yelling in a foreign language (the foreign language part isn't too far from reality though).

Is this stress really warranted? Should any of us be dreading coming to work? I know I'm not the only one. I also know I'm not the only one who can honestly say I'm never stressed because of the kids. I'm stressed because of the adults who can't seem to remove their heads from their rear ends before passing judgement on the rest of us. There is a clear sense of "We're in it for the kids" for most of us and yet we get daily reminders of how easy it would be to replace us. Many of us are here for 10 hours, some of us more- just to finish what we feel is necessary to give our students a quality education. So how is this added insult justified on top of our already massive injury?

I'm not a pessimist folks. Most of you know that I've managed to keep a sunny disposition even in the worst of times. But if the governor of our great state is going to continue to push funds toward charter schools, shouldn't there be a little more foresight when it comes to granting certain individuals the opportunity to educate our children?

So here are the choices for all of us concerned:
a) We stay and hope to God no one gets murdered by administration.
b) We all bail back to public schools or wherever else it is we hail from.
c) We start our own charter school.

Wait...hmm....

Book 'em Paste...

The other day someone asked me what my third book would be about. Of course my first thought was, "Third book? Did I start a third book? Wait...what?" But then I thought about it for a little while. Obviously I'll continue to write about historical subjects but what about the misadventures of life in special education, an historical perspective? Well, for the first time ever, I have posted a poll on this blog. I want to know what you think. Should I, the SPED teacher with the forked tongue, put my wisdom in print along with my uncanny ability to write histories for all the world to read? You vote and let me know!

"Sometimes I just get so jacked up about American Lit that I have to say....F*&K"

Where on earth do I begin?

Well, in general I would rather not get fired for bitching about my job therefore I will refer to my plight obliquely and subtly.

I applied for a job at McDonald's today. No not really but that subtly suggests how I feel about my present circumstances, yes? I also paid a small child to pinch me every 3 minutes for 8 hours. Also not true but a great representation of what I would RATHER be doing.

Is it possible that one individual could make so many asinine career moves in such a short span of time? Apparently I'm living proof that yes, one can.

So I screw on a smile and enjoy the time with the kids because, as most teachers will acknowledge, it's not the kids who cause the stress and aggravation. Subtlety is obviously not one of my many talents after all...