I Make the Young Girls Cry pt. 2

...and puke as well, it seems.

Yesterday, Fire Marshall Fred said he was too sexy for our school, too sexy for our school, so sexy he droooooooled. This meant more days of driving kids around town, no computers to do what our charter school is supposed to be doing and pulling lesson plans out of our asses. Now I've been in situations where I've had to do this, but it's been on my own, not in a team teaching situation and it's been a bit frustrating because I really don't have that much say in what's happening right now. And from what we're dealing with, it's really best for now.

That being said, I was involved in making another child cry and another get "sick to her stomach".

In the afternoon, we gave the kids a "pre-test" in math. Which is teacher-talk for a test to see what the kids know how to do. At least half the kids when into panic mode even though we explained there is no grade and that it's just to show us where they are and what we need to teach. It didn't matter because they've been trained that when they hear the word "test" it's high-stakes. And they're scared shitless because in other schools they're told their scores will reflect on the school, blah, blah, blah. A lot of kids just weren't getting it.

One girl, who was only able to do 3 of 40-something problems, put her head down and started crying. We went into the hall and I calmed her down, told her stupid jokes and she was OK.

Ten minutes later, another girl claimed her stomach hurt. Well, did I mention that we don't have a school nurse? Well, we don't. So, being in the high school, we went to the front desk and the...well I can't call Melanie the receptionist because the school wouldn't function without her...she's the school Superwoman...called the girl's mom who came and picked her up. Turns out the girl does this all the time whenever there's any kind of stress on her.

I was not happy about all this. I made it look like I was mock-pissed, but I didn't get into this business and I sure didn't move 6000 miles away to make kids cry and fake sickness. I told the math teacher that Ted Sizer was going to come to Hawaii and kick her ass. (as a joke, of course)

If we were in the building we were supposed to be I would have had a chance to make other suggestions or help create another way to assess these kids but it's impossible right now. The last I heard, we may get in by Thursday.

I volunteered to talk to all the students about stress and anxiety in school, but I don't think the other teachers are going to necessarily like what I say. They're a bit more competitive than I am, especially when it comes to school. They like competing in science fairs and other academic contests - for the wins.

{sigh} Grandma was right. I should've been a plumber.

On a different note, I talked to my car dealer dude, Brother John. I'm going in Sunday morning to work things out, which means sell the Prius and get something waaaay cheaper.