Random Musings

[Veronica]

Yesterday we did a ride with a large group and two of the riders were teachers from my district. Why is it when teachers get together all we do is ***** about our jobs? I guess for me, part of it is I feel so powerless. Ridiculous mandates come down from on high and we can't change anything. I don't feel represented by union... I feel like my principal puts ridiculous pressure on the 4th and 5th grade teachers. See here I am starting to *****!

Today we have a staff development day and I'm dreading going to work. I just don't want to listen to the ***** fest and I don't want to get dragged into it.

For some bicycle content - my latest challenge is making myself eat when I'm riding hard. I hate to eat on the bike as it is and I'm pushing myself to ride harder with the fast guys, which makes me even less likely to eat. It's paying off, I'm getting faster. But yesterday I bonked hard on the ride. I ran before we rode - still need to get my monthly mileage goal - gotta run this afternoon! So I started the ride somewhat calorie deficient.

I don't have this issue when Thom and I ride by ourselves or when I race. I'm very focused on eating regularly then. But put me into a group and my nutrition plan goes out the window. Where's the loser icon?

I've put off actually going to work as long as I can. I'd so much rather be with my students... at least when they do stupid things or are rude to each other I can blame it on them being ten. What do you say when adults are like that?

Veronica

[Crankin]

Veronica, I felt exactly the same way about my co-workers when I was teaching. So much so, I stopped socializing with them many years ago. I was fortunate to have a boss with extremely high expectations, but with the same attitude as me, so it worked. I hated the union, which demonized me when I started teaching in MA. They didn't represent me, either. I found that a lot of teachers couldn't talk about anything else other than the negative parts of their job, and many just had no lives outside of their families. I just never felt I fit in with most of them, until my last job, when after a few years, most of the teachers were young and had enthusiastic attitudes.
Just keep working for the kids. You know what's right.

[grey]

It's a haaaaard profession anymore. DH was a special ed teacher - taught 4th & 5th SLD & EH kids, then later Autistic kids when we moved to GA, and that was the end of it.

The politics is ridiculous, the paperwork insane, the pressure from the school to do well for the testing is horrible, and the parents are something else entirely. At least at the school in FL, Dave felt some of the teachers there had his back, even if the principal or vice didn't. He worked so hard to mainstream as many of the kids as he could every year - you know the kids suffer with these labels - and it seemed a lot of the teachers were encouraged to do what they could to shove the child back into Dave's classroom, because the school needed the money.

Here, he ran into something else entirely. The teacher he was hired to co-teach with was accostomed to being the only teacher in the county for Autism, and she was jealous and angry that this man could come in and share her little self-shrine. She was so deliberately nasty to him, that was the end of teaching as far as he was concerned.

He lasted 7 years. Most special-ed teachers make it all of 3.

He was very clear- the kids were fine. It was the admin, the paperwork, and the politics.

[Crankin]

Your story is very disheartening, Grey.
I hate to say this, but I found (after 31 years in the profession) that part of the problem is it's so female-centric. Women tend to have a hard time discussing difficult issues in a non-threatening manner and I often felt there was the drama of middle school going on with the faculty. I know most of this is because of the way we are socialized, but after the umpteenth time of being told "you think like a man," (huh?) I started wondering what this meant.
And, btw, I was a special ed teacher for 20 years, and then became an English teacher for the last 11. I was there for the kids and really didn't give a f*** about anything else. I was lucky that the last 2 districts I worked in were outstanding and I ended my career working for people I really liked. Part of what I like about being a therapist is that while I am part of a team in a loose fashion, I work on my own and set my own schedule.
And I can go to the bathroom and drink coffee whenever I want!

[Veronica]

And I can go to the bathroom and drink coffee whenever I want!

This could be the crappiest thing about teaching! Or having to do lesson plans when you're sick.


Veronica