I liked my job.
This was highly unlikely because it was the first day back after spring break. I have been nuturing a pit of bitter anxiety about this day. It had been growing in my stomach, honestly, since before spring break even started. I would think to myself: it will be so awesome to be on spring break; no kids, administrators, lesson plans, etc. for 11 days.
But then, before that thought had really had a chance to develop and come into its own; and before I really had a chance to revel Read more [...]
FAKE EDUCATION NEWS
-Everywhere, USA
Spring Break balances that most delicate of...balances.
Here, in America, most of us believe in the separation of church and state. Is Spring Break really about a "break"? Or is it some Overlord Christian Imperialist Double-Cheeseburger trying to convince you to eat those awful little marshmallow chickens and buy more fake plastic grass because Jesus has risen; probably all as backdrop to the United Egg Producers plan to rule the world? Or is it some sort Read more [...]
There is something that has been pissing me off all year...and I thought I knew what it was. It was right there, in front of me all year. Sort of. And I sort of sensed it. But I didn't really get it until last week.
And it's not what you think it's going to be; the regular cocktail of assholes, dummies and meetings.
It wasn't dummies at meetings. It wasn't assholes sending me emails about meetings. It wasn't feeling like an asshole or a dummy because I actually came to this meeting. It wasn't Read more [...]
There is a magical book called See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers, by Teachers.
The author is Roxanna Elden. (Disclosure: I do not know Ms. Elden personally. I receive no commissions, etc. I just like her book.) Elden has been teaching for a long time. She is an experienced and highly accomplished teacher. You can read about Roxanna and her work and BUY THE BOOK on her website.
Reading this book, I immediately felt I had a sense of the author and that, as a teacher, she was on my side. She Read more [...]
FAKE EDUCATION NEWS
--Nashville, TN
Today started out as a perfectly normal workday for Davis Daniels, a 37-year-old third-grade teacher at Haywood Elementary School in Nashville, Tennessee. And it stayed pretty much just that way. Normal. But today, inexplicably, "perfectly normal" was just too fucking much for Mr. Daniels.
Restrained in a straight jacket at the Vanderbilt Psychiatric Facility, Mr. Daniels takes a long drag from a cigarette held by his nine-year old son, Donald. "I can't explain Read more [...]
Holy Crap...
Does it get worse every year, or have I changed?
I teach seniors. I teach nine week classes on a block schedule. Every nine weeks, I get a new load of 16-25 year olds that I see for 85 minutes every day. (Serious...I had a 25-year-old this year.) It's only nine weeks, but that's still a lot of time to hang with lazy-ass chatty and the crew. The third batch, from the third quarter, is wrapping up tomorrow.
They have to pass my class in order to graduate.
Many haven't given a shit Read more [...]
Be forwarned: This post is all over the place. But, for what it's worth, it accurately reflects my mental state. And that's all I can do. God help us.
Question: What do you call the guy who finished medical school at the bottom of his class?
Answer: Doctor
What is it with all of us teachers suddenly having to be "great"? Where I come from, I was taught not to show off. The ultimate goal for we Midwesterners was always understood to be "quiet adequacy."
What if I am content to be "pretty Read more [...]
Dear Mr. Teachbad,
I am being told to add in two weeks of remediation without changing the curriculum. I have tried to point out that adding in 2 weeks of work will result in losing 2 weeks of work from the end of the curriculum...I am being labeled a troublemaker for pointing out this nicety. Other teachers who have been included in this edict are telling me off. How could I possibly say that this is changing the curriculum? Am I mad?
Crazedmummy
Dear Crazed:
I don't get why the other teachers Read more [...]
Hi, Folks.
Look, I've been out of commission for several days and am just barely starting to get my poop in a group now. I'm swamped. So, rather than go dark, I decided to pull up a couple of posts from back when only me and an English teacher down the hall were reading this blog. These take us all the way back to January of '10. This is back when I used to start each post with an original Teachbad Poem.
We've got Technocracy and the School Without a Soul and Technocracy and the School Without Read more [...]
That's sort of how I feel. After all day with administrators wanting their data standards assessment profile action plans and students asking dumb-ass questions about work they are not going to do, you'd think we'd get some love on the outside.
But no.
I'm not sure where to start. For at least a few years now the drumbeat of "we have to get rid of bad teachers" has been getting louder. (Nevermind the complexities of defining what a good or a bad teacher is.)
In recent days the drumbeat has become Read more [...]
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