Hedgetoad Teaching

In reading across blogland, it seems that spring is truly on it's way. Students are getting restless, the countdown to testing has started and some flowers may have been spotted around the corner. My school mailbox contained the annual "tell us what you're planning on doing next year" form... which means that RIF notices will soon be coming too. Since I'm still (!!!) at the bottom of the seniority list, it's my annual time to stress out about it and seek constant reassurance that "it won't be [you]". Although this year, I may feel a twinge of dissapointment about that one. Weird thing just keep happening, weird-scary things, and everyone is walking on eggshells. Or a little bit closer to running around campus screaming at the top of their lungs. Either one is equally probable. A "friend" told me about a job opening in another district for the coming year. It would be a very different job, but with the possibility of a much lighter wor...

I, seriously, do not believe that I made it through the semester. I don't know what happened or how, but it seemed like every minute of every day was full of crap I had to do right then... and usually three other things that I really should do. Ok, I've got two kids in diapers now, so that makes things busy at home... but I only ate lunch four or five times in the last 18 weeks because I was too busy working through them! I'm pretty sure it has something do with our superintendent's belief that if teachers in Africa can teach 80 students using sticks and a dirt floor we can too. Speaking of which, the budget cuts that have come down and are coming down have really produced some interesting changes the personalities of our staff. The guy who had no problems will not shut up about class sizes (granted, all of his classes are over 32 in room built for 25 AND most are really stinky freshmen), the lady that used to help out everyone is no longer seen anywhere (and forget a...