WEEK 11 - Breakdown

I had my first breakdown this week. There are only so many 55-65 hour weeks you can put in before it becomes too much to handle. By mid-week, I was to the point where all someone needed to do was look at me the wrong way and I would snap. What finally put me over the edge was the copy machine continually jamming while I was trying to make copies for the next day. I just sat down and let it out, all the while thinking of everything I still had to deal with before the end of the week. In this post, I will be talking about a few of those things that built up to eventually push me over the edge.

1. It's the end of the quarter. 23 of my 130 students failed this quarter, mostly because they come late, sleep, talk to the people around them, goof off, don't do their classwork or homework, then fail the tests. However, many think they can come in and jump through hoops at the end of the quarter to get their grades up. I take a hard line and tell them to work harder next quarter so that they quit failing the tests. I give extra credit only in extremely rare cases, and this is not one of them.

2. Wednesdays all teachers teach a 7th class not necessarily related to our content areas. I teach Spanish club. This is extra preparation from what we already have to prepare, and really ends up getting very little of my attention.

3. One of my students told me that the kids in his class are picking on him. I haven't seen anything, but said I will remain vigilant. The class he is in is a pretty chatty class, and nearly half of the students have either Ds or Fs, mostly because of apathy. Simply getting them to quiet down and focus on learning is a huge task in and of itself, but having to deal with bullying in my classroom under my nose will make it even harder. I have already spoken with the principal and the deans, and a dean came in to observe my classroom on Thursday. I'll have to sit down with the other students this upcoming week, probably during my prep time.

4. On Tuesday I got an email about a student of mine who was suspended for bringing a weapon to school. I am supposed to get some work together for him to work at home, give him an incomplete for the quarter (because he missed the final test) and stay after school with him (on my own time) when he gets back so that he can take that final test. Really??

5. On Wednesday, the parent of one of my students, Frank (not his real name), emailed to say that one of Frank's friends from middle school was murdered on Monday, and that is why Frank might be a little out of it. Emotionally, this took a toll on me. His friend died a gruesome death (by sword), and just knowing that Frank, a super sweet 14 year old has to deal with this just hit me hard. It has been on my mind for a few days, especially knowing that another one of my students is suspended for bringing a weapon to school.

6. On Wednesday, when all I really needed to do was grade and prepare for the end of the quarter, we had a meeting. Every other Wednesday our department gets together to talk about issues specific to the world language department, but this week it was the last thing on my mind, since I had so many other things to deal with. The meeting goes from 3:15-4:45 (or 4:30...not sure since we generally go past 4:30 every meeting). I didn't leave the school until 7:45pm that night.

7. If you have been following my hours, you will see that since August 20th, I have worked every single day. I have not taken even 1 day off from working on school work. Some might say that this is unhealthy (indeed, I am sick today) and that I'm doing myself and my students a disservice, but with all of the extra work that comes with being a teacher, just keeping ahead of the game keeps me on my toes every single day. Again, if I could just teach, and not have meetings and extra classes, and not have to play parent to many kids who don't know how to function in a large group, and not have trainings, this job would be a lot easier, and probably more in line with what the public thinks teachers do.

My hours for week 11:

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	10/28/2012	12:30 PM	1:30 PM	1
		3:15 PM	5:45 PM	2.5
M	10/29/2012	7:45 AM	5:00 PM	9.25
		9:15 PM	10:45 PM	1.5
T	10/30/2012	7:45 AM	5:15 PM	9.5
		8:00 PM	9:00 PM	1
W	10/31/2012	7:45 AM	7:45 PM	12
Th	11/1/2012	7:45 AM	6:00 PM	10.25
F	11/2/2012	9:00 AM	12:30 PM	3.5
		1:30 PM	4:15 PM	2.75
Sat	11/3/2012	9:30 AM	11:30 AM	2
		7:45 PM	10:45 PM	3
	Total			58.25