day one of year four

what a flippin' disaster this year is going to be.

today was the first day of school. 

well, the first day i had to go back anyways.

kids show up on thursday,

and it's a good thing too. 

because we are not prepared.

at all.

there are boxes all over the halls and rooms, 

no teachers have their teaching schedules, 

and our administration feels it is more important 

to sit in PDs all day than to clean up and prepare the school, 

or finalize teacher programs.

i should be used to the awfulness of our PDs by now,
because every PD in the past has sucked,
but somehow,
i thought this year would be different.

so not the case.


this mindless driveling PD was no different.

our principal spent an hour going through a list of things 

that we need to discuss with our classes during the first week --

class expectations, a syllabus, school rules, etc.
like we haven't all done this before.

you know all of that boring crap that every teacher does the first day of school,

and as a student you always wondered

why can't all of the teachers just get together and share my contact information?

and who can blame the kids,

the first day sucks for us too.

it's so boring and monotonous.

but then it got interesting.

half way through my principals' monologue,

a colleague commented:

"it's kind of hard to write a syllabus

when we don't know what we are teaching."

burn.

(that's right kids, 

we still don't know what classes we are teaching. 

on thursday.)

my principal's response:

"don't worry about it.

just make the syllabus general."

um, what?

ngk, do you know what a syllabus is?

you are asking us to do the exact opposite of

what a syllabus is supposed to be.

this is going to be a great year.

or something.

at least i went climbing tonight. 

and i rocked a whole bunch of V1s. 

rockstar.

it's global regents time...

and cause i love my kids so much

(read: i'm crazy nervous that they are all going to fail.)

and cause my kids are crazy

(who asks for jerk chicken at 8:30 in the morning?)

i made them fruit salad.

$30 and an hour and a half later,

i have 17 thousand pounds of fruit.

pineapples,

mangos,

papaya,

kiwis

strawberries,

grapes,

oranges.

(no bananas miss, they get brown and mushy.)

here's hoping they pass the test.

(cross every finger and toe)

ps. one of my children actually called me mama today.

i responded. 

disaster?
100 percent.

we are the union...

the mighty, mighty union!!

may12th--

UFT rally. 

we,

and about 10,000 other people, 

were protesting Mayor Bloomberg's proposed teacher layoffs.

and we had a rockin' good time.

somehow we ended up carrying this huge banner.

there were some amazing signs:

fire teachers, students get burned

(on the back of a little girl)

don't balance the budget on my back!

we are all wisconsin

this is what democracy looks like

(on the UFT t-shirts)

"the education mayor." really?

this is me attempting to hold the banner, 

while the wind was blowing hard core. 

i may have almost sailed away. 

look at all those people!

(this line went on for blocks!)

and there were some amazing chants.

my favorite, even though i had a hard time saying it, was:

el pueblo, unido, jamás será vencido
(the people, united, will never be defeated)

 

AEL's protesters!

does tenure rhyme with manure?

it should.

cause it is.

well not tenure.

tenure is awesome.

but the tenure process is definitely a big steaming pile of...

let me explain. 

i have to make a tenure portfolio.

which is essentially a list of everything i have done for the past 3 years.

um...
insane, much?

i mean,

i'm organized.

or at least i thought i was.

but this is ridiculous.

i am going through file cabinets, emails, other people's documents,

all in attempts to prove that i am awesome at what i do.

the amount of work i am putting into this document is astounding.

(i have a job, and yet i am working on my resume. wtf?)

and the kicker is,

i'm awesome.

the kids know it,

i know it,

my administrators should know it,

and now i have to make sure the state of new york knows it?

bananas.

i mean,

i'm crazy.

but what teacher isn't?

(you'd have to be, right?)

and i have bad days.

(but who doesn't?)

but for the most part,

i think, anyways,

i rock.

so the fact that my life is being turned upside down by this,

blows.

and sometimes i'm not even sure i can handle doing this job another year

so there have been more than a few times

(today)

that i have wondered if it was all worth it.

and then i remember the kids.

damn them.

they are so flipping cute.

and want to learn so much,

that i know it is worth it.

but sometimes that doesn't make this whole process any easier.

and i wish it did.

what does though,

is knowing that the administrator that gives me hell on a daily basis

also has to do this.

the tenure portfolio, i mean.

awesome.

times a million.