Oops, left something out

The previous post would make more sense, particularly the karma part, with two additional pieces of information.

Last year, when 2 of us were talking with Highmaintenance, complaining about the special ed teachers we had and how they made things difficult for us, she said that she wished she had a co-teacher because it would make her life easier. I mentioned she does not plan ahead. She is always running to the copier during class to make copies. She has tried getting Funsucker to do her copying - good luck with that.

Funsucker that I was overly picky - and now she is butting heads with Highmaintenance.

They SOOOO deserve each other.

What goes around

Sometimes you just get to sit back and watch Karma happen.

HighMaintenance is teaching with Funsucker this year and they are having problems. HM cannot plan more than a day in advance. It occurred to me yesterday when I was trying to plan with her that a) she probably thought she was being helpful even though she was contributing absolutely nothing b) she thinks I am a pain in the butt (I am) C) she feels like she has jumped through these hoops a million times already and doesn’t need to do this on any schedule other than her own. Her lack of planning is causing tremendous stress for her and for everyone around her but she is not going to change. Somehow we are supposed to aleviate the stress or sympethize with her.

She put on such a wonderful dog and pony show that the Powers That Be think she is awesomeness personified and cannot see that her students and the other teachers are suffering because she is not a team player.

I have come to see Funsucker in another light. She didn’t want to plan with me last year because she had taught the course before and knew what she was doing and wasn’t terribly interested in my input. (Hey, I can understand that. I'm not terribly interested in hers either.)

This year, she is not comfortable with the math and really wants a plan and communication and is getting neither. And the kids are suffering.

They had a meeting early last week with an administrator to discuss planning. Haven’t heard yet what was said . High Maintenance has decided that she doesn’t like the planning calendar the rest of the teachers are using for a particular math so she has modified it - radically – for her students. We may be back on the same page by the end of February. I do not know if the Powers That Be – who do not understand or remember the math – understand this.

It would be like a group of teachers agreeing to teach the book from chapter 1 to chapter 12 and another teacher deciding that it made more sense to teach all of the odd chapters followed by all of the even chapters.. You cannot plan together if you are not doing the same order. And, while we occasionally teach the same things, we are not following the same path.

I will say that Funsucker is going out of her way to get along with me this year and I am being courteous. High Maintenance is not impacting me because I interact with her as little as possible.

One more day and then a break! Won't see many kids so it will be a chance to raise their grdes.

Some people ought not to be allowed near anything that plugs in

Some people are luddites - or too stupid to be anything except a luddite.

Highmaintenance - she who is too lazy or self centered to offer me any help at all - keeps coming up with things for me to do for her. Sometimes I can get out of it by avoiding her. Sometimes - like today when we had a teacher work day - she showed up in my room when other teachers were there and it would appear rude to tell her to pee up a rope. Although I usually don't care what people think.

Today she needed me to cut and paste things out of pdf files. And she sent me a list of pages and images she wanted copied.

How hard is it to get the right page?

I have no problem posting this. She is too stupid to find the blog.

"I'm so stressed"

I asked for help. (I hate to keep coming back to this but I don't ask for help very often and it took a lot for me to ask.) So, I asked a teacher to help by letting my know what she was doing for class for two days, this being a class she has taught before and I haven't.

She said fine.

When I left at the end of the day I had heard nothing, so I really didn't expect that she would follow through and I came up with something. (This week, I am planning the day before and I. HATE. THAT.)

When I got to school, she greets me with "I am so stressed" but I really didn't give a damn since she hadn't come up with anything and I had my own problems.

I found out today what she was so stressed about.

She had a bad dream.

No, seriously. She had a bad dream and so she didn't plan for her class this week, because it left her stressed.

I would say she was an adult, but you might misunderstand.

She is old enough to have taught 15 years.


Really.

=============

Someone mentioned "what, you are in school already?"

The average high for the past couple of weeks is about 93. (I am too lazy to actually calculate it, so I am eyeballing it.) The only county near Atlanta that hasn't started is Fulton County. [Atlanta straddles Fulton and DeKalb County and there is also the Atlanta Public School district] Fulton will start on the 21st. The rest of the districts are sending their kids on school buses that are not air conditioned but they ask that the kids bring water on the bus.

The parents don't want to start school this early. The teachers don't want to start this early. The kids sure don't want to be here.

But we are in school.

A little stress 2

Now Ms. HighMaintenance is upset with me because I . . . asked her next time to put the things she wanted me to copy in my mailbox to make it easier for me.

She will never bother me again, she says.

Sure she will. She won't be able to help herself.

A little stress with your coffee?

I get to school in the morning with my own list of things I had to do. I don't know about you, but I usually have a couple of things to do which is why I get there early.

I can make copies, prepare the work for the kids in detention, make sure I have the correct date on the board - little stuff that helps me get my head together to teach.

I get there today and there is an email from Ms. HighMaintenance. Could I please make 90 copies each of three handouts that were attached to the email or on her desk. Because of leaving early for the snow day, she just didn't get her copies made for her sub. And she is so stressed out.

Well, they weren't attached to the email. And her door was locked.

They finally unlocked her door. I found the things to be copied. No paper. You do know we buy our own? So I go get mine and - now there is a line at the copier.

So I wait. And wait. And wait. And finally make copies. And email her that she owes me half a ream of paper.

I would be more understanding if this was the first. Or second. Or third time this had happened.

Then Funsucker (who demanded that she be allowed to teach today) didn't want to teach today, had to do special education paperwork.