yoyoyo! i'm almost done! never thought i'd survive to this...but only one more week, and all i have to do is grade my finals and give out final grades. and then finally relax with my kids. the hardest thing has always been to do things that would make them not like me. like, not lowering my standards. i always try to push them, and i always let them know that i see more potential in them. especially the ones that are failing. it's harder now though b/c so many kids are cutting. once they got an F for the first two thirds of the semester, they felt that it was impossible to pass, so they either just fooled around in class, or stopped coming. i used to tell them that if they weren't in class to learn, i'd rather have them outside, but after so many of them just don't even come, it's kind of sad. i can't even talk to them and encourage them.
bike update: they found a starting motor! for only $150! but it's in florida. so it should get here early next week and then they can see if they can fix the bike
Monday, June 02, 2003
wow...a good day today...i had a headache again, but that had more to do with my cold than my classes. it's kind of sad seeing how many kids don't come to school anymore. i walked across the school to go buy my lunch, and there were so few kids out and about. i've also noticed that in my classes a lot of the kids just don't even come anymore. i don't think that many have gotten kicked out. even the ones that were turning themselves around in my class...i think they just cut the whole day cuz they're failing all of their other classes..
i wish i could help the school out more, especially since next year is gonna be so tough. i just found out that they're axing another biology teacher, so they're gonna go down to 4 (this year we had 7). that means 40-50 kids per class next year! aiya! but one less old useless teacher means that they can hire someone else in a year or so, maybe someone with training and can help start a new attitude among out department
i was talking to my principal after school for a bit, and i didn't know teaching was so hard on her too. her first year she had two young kids, and got separated from her husband. i can't imagine having to go thru what i went thru with a family to take care. hell, i coudln't even take care of myself! it's such a sad thing....why should first year teachers always have such a hard time? shouldn't we be trying to keep good people and make them good teachers? the way urban education works, we're only keeping the lazy teachers who don't give a shit about anything except for their summer breaks. could we change things with politics? or should we abandon it and just go the way of private education? i was always a stickler for public, but i would never want to send my kids to an oakland public school....
how many of you would be up for sharing a house in piedmont? kind of like a time share thing. we can get like 100 people to chip in, so then we could all use the address to send our kids to the piedment schools. and it'll pay for itself after only a few years! no more spending 5 grand for each kid each year at a private school. just send them to piedmont!
