Priorities, people!

I've been AWOB (absent without blogging) for a couple of days. The last time we saw each other, I was talking about the fight that broke out in my classroom at the end of the day on Wednesday. Well, it gets better.

Thursday was my day in the computer lab. And if you recall, taking my students to the computer is an absolute chore. My first period class didn't get to stay because they couldn't keep their mouths shut. While I was in the lab with second period, the janitor came in and moved all the furniture the way my principal told him, which included taking out all the tables and stacking my textbooks into one pile (where before, I had them split up into the separate classes). This also included removing my second computer, which is the only computer in my classroom that is hooked up to the ceiling-mounted LCD projector that we are required to use because the district paid for the technology. So, now I can't use it. Whatever. Not my fault.

And if that wasn't enough, I had a child "fall out" at the very beginning of my fifth period class and started having seizures, of which she had no history. They called the ambulance and took her away. She didn't regain full consciousness until they were in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. It was scary because there was nothing I could do to help her in the overall scheme of things. The nurse told me later that she, too, was freaked out. I started crying. Too much excitement in two days. In the meantime, the PE coaches took my class to the gym (their planning period) and I sat in the gym office getting a hold of myself and calming down. They sent the nurse down to take my blood pressure, and it was slightly elevated from what it was at my doctor's appointment, but still well within the normal range.

I thought seriously about taking the day off on Friday (hey, I deserved it!) but then I remembered that we were having a luncheon and I was the only one signed up to bring drinks, and that I would only have to teach 3 of my five classes since the afternoon was a basketball tournament. So, I went. And it was a good day.

Have I told you before how the other teachers on my hall try to undermine Fridays? They show movies every Friday. So, my students get to my class and are indignant that they have to do work, because, after all, it's Friday, and they're watching movies in every other class. It drives me INSANE! I've teased the other teachers about it (no, I can't spare a kid to help you during your planning period, Mr. History Teacher, because, unlike some people, we actually do work on Fridays--oh, and by the way, how do you justify showing Kung Fu Panda in your lesson plans?). And yesterday, I started talking to Ms. Science Teacher about what they were doing (I could see the TV/DVD cart at the front of the room) and she said that she just showed movies every Friday because it was just too hard to fight the kids. They didn't want to do anything on Fridays. Besides, it gave her time to finish her work for her online graduate class.

So, let me get this straight. We're at a Title I school which barely makes adequate yearly progress on state tests. Beyond that, though, the students don't want to think for themselves and want us to do the hard work for them. They still can't write in complete sentences or write in cursive. We only have 36 weeks in which to accomplish our state-mandated objectives for the year. You watch movies every Friday -- so, for 36 days, which in 5-day school weeks, comes out to...7 weeks and one day? I sure as heck won't be sending my child to school to watch movies for 7 weeks out of the school year. Especially movies that are in no way connected to the curriculum. It's criminal! But it's not regulated from the top. However, the ways the chairs in my classroom are arranged is micromanaged. Priorities, people???

And it's not just the 7th/8th grade teachers. If you recall, there is a door between my classroom and the library (closed and locked always, but still thin) and we can often hear the movies being played in the library. So, the kids don't have a regular library day to go check out books, but teachers will take them to watch Napolean Dynamite and Home Alone? Really???

My students ask when we'll ever have a Friday off or watch a movie, and my response is NEVER!!!! We have work to do.