Taylor the Teacher

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Kitty Cat said today of her oh-so-scary “call down” meeting with the ~ah-hem~ front office, “I’m not going to bend over FOR them.” Then we had fun laughing about the possible tactics they would have for trying to force us to bend over. But I’ll let her tell you that story. I just want to tell you that she is the absolute crap. She’s my hero.

Now I’m sitting here once again on my porch at the end of the day. Chewing on that juicy bit from today. And feeling guilty for blogging, drinking wine, and not running myself sick to be a “good teacher.” 

Decided to share with you, for the good of the group, what I’ve learned today.I’m not going to stay online all night, though ~i swear i swear i swear~ because I’m going to watch “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” I started it at school today even though I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish it because the LCD projector & loud speakers in my room have spoiled me to my pissant TV.

But watching films is part of my job. ~bummer huh?~ So I have to get over myself and my pissant TV and watch the film. I don’t think this is what Damian meant when he said that get over yourself thing, but that’s the beauty of it. It’s true every which way.

Which brings me ~ass backwards~ to the reason I opened this document in the first place. ~no it doesn’t. whatever*~

I’ve noticed that getting over yourself can always help. I had a car accident because I was annoyed that the drive thru wasn’t taking debit cards. ~someone’s going to sue me for saying that. good luck~ I wasn’t getting over my own inconvenience. Further example, further example, further example ad infinitum. In all those ad infinitum examples aforementioned, I was wrong and had to get over myself.

Then again.

There’s a point at which you’re not getting over yourself. You’re just letting people get over on you. Which, as it turns out, is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THING.

Today’s lesson: Don’t take bullshit.

Watching the film? Germane to my job. Buying the film? Part of my job by choice rather than wait for the library ordering processes ~our librarians rock rock rock~ or confine myself to what the library already has. Besides, if I invest my time and brainwaves planning lessons for a film, I want to own that film for the future. I also don’t pick films that suck. ~just ask the guys in my first period class. in fact, ask them anything. they’ll tell you. they make that class fun. don’t tell them i said that~

Filling out endless forms and permission slips from rental services and the administration? Ok, also part of my job, but as the learning expert in the room I’m here to tell you they’re pointless. ~although, in truth, nobody has ever asked for them. but other teachers get hung out to dry for not doing it.~ They serve shadowy, vague, selfish interests unlrelated to learning or teaching. Justifying myself in seventeen different ways in triplicate only to find that my efforts have served to create a paper trail they can use against me? Fuck that.

But tonight’s “work” is related to teaching and learning. I’m excited about Cold War films. So for tonight I’m getting over myself, in spite of how much I love my porch. But don’t expect me to do that because the system has a paperwork fetish. That’s your issue, not mine. I only take on my own teaching issues when I’m at home. And since my teaching issues actually do improve the classroom ~unlike the aforementioned bullshit~ I do those first at school, too. No way I’m leaving off thinking about the actual teaching until the last hours of the day so I can fill out tardy forms. ~that never come back handled~

If you can find someone who cares about learning as much as I do that will do THIS job for THIS money that’s actually a good teacher, I will happily concede the ring. If I am expected to work my fingers to the bone because my BOSS actually makes it HARDER for me to do the job I was hired to do, they can kiss my ass.

Lest anyone say, “She’s just bitching about her job.” Let me say that I haven’t BEGUN bitching about this job. The thing Kitty Cat and I talk about with this blog and all the “bitching” I do on it, is how MILD the stuff is I’ve actually revealed when the truth is MUCH WORSE, and how EXTREME other teachers’ ~and administrators~ reactions are.

What gets me is that there used to be ONE administrator in that building I respected. Now I don’t know what to think. If she knows the things going on at that school are bad for students but watches and participates anyway because she is on a career path, I’m afraid of her. Worse, if she really believes that what’s going on in that school is GOOD for kids, she’s a pod person, ~getting ready for invasion of the body snatchers~ and is therefore certainly to be avoided. It might be contagious.

I just want to shake her and say: WHAT YOU ARE DOING IS NOT FOR THE GOOD OF THE GROUP!

* ~still playing with mechanics for the pink parts it’s an interesting study to me actually had originally wanted zero punctuation between the tildes but finding it hard to do without any punctuation at all still figuring out my “rules” for the pink parts isn’t that how punctuation should be done rather than according to someone’s rules~