Taylor the Teacher

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

Before first period: came early to try & get some boxes into the classroom from the car. Saw a student on crutches on the way in. I asked him what happened.

“I got shot,” he said.

Inside, a couple of colleagues told me about a fight at a school sporting event the night before where 11 of our students ended up hospitalized. The conversation drifted to guns, and I mentioned that I don’t have one and never will.

“I’ll ask you again after Thanksgiving,” one of the men said.

First period: I asked the students to tear their journal entries OUT OF THEIR JOURNALS. I may as well have asked them to tear their teeth out of their mouths. But, “WE DON’T TAKE PAPERS OUT OF OUR JOURNALS,” they said in unison. Change is hard.

Then, there was a fire. Not an “oh my gosh, we had an accident” fire, but a malicious, deliberate, asshole thing someone did. It was out before the alarm went off, and we didn’t evacuate.

Second period: planning. Someone read me a power point for an hour, and I left not understanding any of it. What I vaguely did get was that I’m supposed to fill out complicated paperwork forms so we can classify academic and behavioral problems into “tiers.” ~less than impressed with this power point and the paperwork it represents since it was sandwiched between two fires~

Third period: another fire. This time we evacuated and spent the entire period outside. At least 2 students were arrested. Since the athletic field is too close to the building for a safe evacuation, the students have to go out into the neighborhood. It was mayhem.

Fourth period: had to go to the district office to get my laptop. I have yet to get a roster of students. The laptop gave me access to the roster, theoretically, but I haven’t had a chance to print one out.

Fifth period: pretty good class.

After school: faculty meeting to discuss the arson situation. ~this is four and a half hours of meetings in two days~

7:30 pm: time for bed.  ~after i read 9 chapters of “a lesson before dying,” so i can catch up with the students~