Old Time Radio Hour

Love is all, love is you

Cross-posted with my Xanga ...

 

 

The Beatles.

Love.

I like it.

I want it.

Mucho.

 

 

Hear it yourself: http://www.thebeatles.com/hearlove.

 

New Job; Old Baggage

"How do you like your new job?"

Or some reasonable facsimile thereof.

I keep running into people I haven't seen in a while and that, more or less, is what they ask me. I am thankful I have a job. I am thankful it pays pretty well. I am thankful it is something I know how to do and don't really have to "get up to speed."

But.

It's in a public school. Which I swore I'd never teach in again. It is with middle schoolers. Which I swore I'd never teach again. With sixth graders none-the-less! Which I swore I'd never teach in the first place. I teach SIX classes a day. I've never taught six classes a day. Back in good ol' FCPS, the union made sure that five was the limit. On average, it's a 45+ minute commute one-way. My teaching day doesn't end until 4-frickin'-30. If I have just a 90-minute after school rehearsal (a relatively short rehearsal time), I don't get home before 7:15, usually later.

A further quick note about teaching six classes a day. That's 170 kids that flow through my classroom every day. Trying to remember names, keep order, and advance some sort of learning is like dancing on marbles.

I'm exhausted. I come home, eat a bite of dinner. And vege for the evening. I have plenty I could do, but my brain is so fried, I honestly can't recall any of those things that could be attended to.

Always in the past, the thing that made teaching rewarding was the students. I got to know them after spending months with them. And there were always at least a few each year who were just a pleasure to teach and to know. I don't get that with this situation. Because of the "middle school concept", the kids cycle through drama, and other exploration-type classes, every nine weeks. So, just as I'm beginning to really get to know the kids, they're gone and a new crop comes in. So, I really can't get to know them well enough to have any real feelings of care for them. Heck, I can't even get all of their names memorized before the nine weeks is up. They end up being just a nameless (though not faceless) mob.

I know I've written a lot more negatives than positives, but in terms of "how I like my job", the positives and negatives are pretty balanced. Most of the time. So I don't really know how to answer people. They want to hear good news. But even my best attempts at just highlighting the positives in answer still come out sounding like damning with faint praise.

I hope people stop asking soon.

I've long battled contentment "issues" in regard with my various jobs over the years. It truly breaks my heart that I apparently have learned little.

God, save me from myself.

First Post

Hmmm ... Will I follow Hendri X and leave Xanga? We'll see.