Oh hey. When you come home from school on a Monday and it feels like a Thursday. That. I noticed last year that the first two days of the school week felt like four. And then you’d get to Thursday and it would be better. Kids have to relearn routines after a weekend off. Three-day weekends are worse. Some of this is learning the kids at this time of year. I had to chomp down on one period on the first day. They had one good day and the others have been a stretch. The work refusal thing…groupwork does not mean you hand the worksheet to one person and make them do it. You do that and I have them do it on their own and hand you your own. Four people equals four brains, not two. Or one. There seems to be some shock with that. All in the one period. It’s fine. Things will move around. That might be my best class in a month or two. You never know. The rest of it is upper management making it harder to do my job. And some of it is other teachers. There is one group who feels put upon, but to solve their problem, they want to revive a system we had some years back that didn’t work, that put the onus on another group to manage this group’s needs. And we got rid of that. But these two teachers weren’t here and they’re trying to revive it here. Nope. Uh uh. We’re not.
So I spend a ton of my day texting, talking, and emailing as a union rep, trying to get everyone to consider the needs of everyone else, while getting told to be a marigold (a flower that protects other flowers). I guess I’m a marigold with teeth? Or a cranky marigold. I don’t know. It solidifies my decision to retire in three years. And to say no a lot to all the unnecessary extras. And to push back on the thing you told me today that you want me to incorporate into tomorrow’s lessons. Nope. I need more warning. Bitchy start. And it’s hot here, which doesn’t help. My A/C at school is finally working well…no more crazy 84% humidity, where the papers wilt.
Artwise, this is always an adjustment as well. Monday, after a 2-hour staff meeting that made no freakin’ sense, I did not have the energy to go to ceramics (I wouldn’t even have gotten there until 5:30), so I came home and worked on rosters and time capsule photos, fighting my printer. I need a new printer. This one is too old and has connection issues, but I don’t have any money until October. Some unexpected pool and car expenses did not help this summer, so we’re doing that thing where I don’t get paid until the 31st but I’m working and I haven’t been paid since June. It’s been a stretch. It’s going to continue to be a stretch in September with the house insurance being due. Makes me rethink retirement, except no, it doesn’t. I can work somewhere else with less stress, less work to bring home. Less management of other people. So Monday night, the next real art step was drawing, and there was no way I had the energy for that. So I cut out 24 freezer paper circles, ironed them to three different wool fabrics, and cut those out, and pinned them down to the borders of Sue Spargo’s Rooted Block of the Month…
Now I just need to sew them down and embroider around them. Sounds simple. It is. I used to be able to do these every night instead of working every night. Nah. Aargh.
Last night, I finally got the headspace to draw. I had let my brain percolate for the last two days…what did I want to add to the drawing I started at the residency? Where was that going? How big was it going to be? I have limited time. I have to remember that. I had already taped the enlarged drawing together…I just needed to add some paper around that. Scribble was a lovely paperweight.
The pro is that she does not fight back as I slide her all over the light table. She did eventually get irritated and leave though, which is good, because I needed to add even more to the edges.
It got really big all of a sudden, but I may end up trimming some of the extra off. So yeah, I’m drawing. It’ll be OK. I like to draw. I’m not always sure what I’m drawing, but that’s also OK. This is a good headspace for the end of the day.
This stuff drives me nuts. Let’s not give the untrained, power-hungry crazies any more tools for destruction.
We already have people pretending to be ICE and attacking people. Why did we need to make these? They should be illegal.
Yesterday with the kids wasn’t bad. They followed instructions except for a few lazy butts in that one class. I had my first detention yesterday, but I think I might be building a relationship with that kid. Pros and cons. Today is a bit more of the chaos…sometimes that’s all it is in here…but it’s chaos I know, chaos I’ve done before for years. That helps. Next week’s chaos is an unknown…new stuff. That’s harder. I’m sure there are some guidelines somewhere; I just haven’t found them yet. I created a new homework assignment last night too. I may be the only science teacher giving homework at the point. Oh well. It’s good for them, good practice. Makes them think independently. Schedule stuff. Good life skills. Honestly, the paper itself would take about 10 minutes to do well, so it’s not a huge time suck. And most of them don’t do it at home.
So we finish up safety stuff today so I can test them on it tomorrow; then they do their time capsules, so I’ve been dealing with photos. Hoping I have enough yarn to measure their height. Then pilates after school. Then drawing later. Gonna do some schoolwork before that though. Get stuff graded before the weekend. I have a lot on my to-do list for the weekend that is NOT school-related. Hopefully a decent night’s rest…between the low blood sugar every night at 3 AM (ugh, make it stop; need a solution for that) and the heat and the crankiness and the dog, sleep is not coming easily. At some point, exhaustion hits though and you sleep no matter what.
Kathy Nida 