In Which I Rant and Rave and Act All UnChristianlike

Good Gawd all hell broke loose at school. And since it was a bunch of top secret "don't tell anyone" stuff, it was mostly just a bunch of women freaking out in hushed whispers, which is pretty funny. Oh, and since it's all top secret stuff, if you know anyone at my school, don't talk about this, and you didn't hear it from me and you can't prove anything. So there.

Our numbers came in, and this year, instead of waiting until the last possible moment (which was my experience), our principal told us right away. Only in typical form, he didn't tell us who was going where, just that this grade is losing one person, and this grade is sending one person to fourth grade, and one person to fifth grade. And that is sending a few teachers into a veritable tizzy. While I'm teaching science.

Here's the part that I'm pissed about. They're coming to me, freaking out, saying how they can't move because they'd have to learn a new grade level and they're very busy outside of school and they don't want to have to teach a TAKS grade, and the kids coming up are a particularly crazy bunch and they don't want to have to teach them again. To me. The girl who did this last year. And has no choice but to do it again.

PUH-LEEZE. I didn't complain. I didn't cry. I don't complain right now. (Which is, by the way, why I was the one picked to move last year.) I got the word I was moving, and I packed my shit up and moved. And tried to keep a good attitude about it. And am doing my best, working way too hard, to teach these kids, because it is my job and I knew when I signed the form ten years ago to switch my major to education that it was not going to be easy. I work long hours and grade papers in Starbucks on Sundays and spend most of my days stressed out because I don't know if what I'm doing is going to help them pass the TAKS, but I keep going and tutor four days a week because we're all in this together, and it's about them not me.

I just want to shout at them:
- Do you think I wanted to move my classroom for the 8th time in 9 years of teaching? But I did.
- Do you think I wanted to walk into a classroom and not have one idea of what I was teaching? But I did.
- Do you think I wanted to go into a grade knowing I would have to go to training after training after training on my own time? But I did.
- Do you think I have nothing but free time on my hands, so I can just do all this in my free time, without having to give up anything I wanted to do? But I did.

But I don't yell those things. I nod sympathetically. And say "we'll just see." And when they leave I roll my eyes.

Sorry ya'll had to be a part of that.

THINGS THAT MAKE MY WORLD GO ROUND:
My best friend had her baby today, and he is the most precious thing in the whole wide universe! And I have held him and he is perfect.