This is what my inbox looked like today, minus the 150 regular emails about student discipline:
Re: Computer issues
Re: Phones down
Re: Maggots in Trailer Ceiling
Re: Student theft
Today, like yesterday, the computers and phones were down in
the trailers because of the recent storm. Have you tried to teach without a
powerpoint when you’d planned your lessons with a powerpoint, or a printer to
print your handouts from? Have you been in the same room with numerous people
with a jail record, and no way to contact the office? It’s not as much fun as
it sounds. I spent my planning period frantically scrabbling around with my thumb
drive and cords.
This morning my students noticed that small white
maggoty-looking creatures were falling from our ceiling. “Noticed” is misleading—actually they screamed and bolted from the
classroom. I kept my cool, but inside, I was screaming too. Custodial staff
enlightened us—these were wood-eating worms, not maggots, because maggots need
a body to gnaw on. I admitted that the notion of a body moldering above my ceiling
crossed my mind as a likely probability.
When we moved to another classroom, a student who was on his
way out with security stole the remote control to the projector. I gave mine to
the teacher of that classroom, and am pretty sure I will be teaching without a
powerpoint even once the computers are hooked back into the system.
During lunch, one of the older teachers was talking about
how our school isn’t so bad. “The grass isn’t greener anywhere else. You’ll
always have disrespectful kids who won’t work in any class.” He looked at me. “Except
for you. The grass is definitely greener for you. I’d quit if I taught 9th
grade standard.” Thanks, buddy.
Oh, well. It could be worse. There could have been a body in
my ceiling.
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