Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Aggravation


Between students lying, coaches thinking winning is more important than a test, and my dogs getting out and running around the neighborhood, I had a very aggravating day yesterday.  

First of all, a student told his parents that I am never in my classroom during class.  That just pisses me off, since I am probably one of only teachers who never leaves their students in the classroom by themselves.  If I have to go to the restroom, I wait until we are between classes.  Once I get into my room in the morning, I rarely leave it except for break and lunch.  The only time that I am not in my room is during my planning period because I am usually running off tests or other such errands.

The next thing was that one of our coaches took nearly half of my class to "practice" before they left for their game.  Who has practice before leaving for an away game?  I wouldn't have minded as much, if I was not giving a major test.  Was I asked if I had something important going on?  No!  Did I complain to our principal?  Yes!  Did anything get done about it?  No! All of the students in the class got a reprieve and the test will be today because I did not want the students who did take the test to be able to tell those not there what was on it.  They think they got an advantage, but they're not smarter than me, no matter what they think.  Since most of them weren't listening when I was lecturing, an extra day will not do them any good.  There is no way to pass this test if you had not listened in class.

The last thing was the dogs.  I have a large fenced in backyard.  For some reason the dogs decided to break through the fence.  I spent nearly three hours fixing fences and corralling dogs back through the gate.  Four times they got out, four times they found a new way out.  Finally, I fixed all of the escape routes (fingers crossed, anyway).  I was ready to kill them before it was over.  Poor dogs, they had no idea how aggravated I already was today.

Sorry, but sometimes I just feel the need to bitch and gripe.  I hope you guys don't mind too much.

11 comments:

Writer said...

I don't mind. Get it out or it'll start turning your insides into crap. :\

Anonymous said...

It makes for good reading. ;) Seems like a lot of people were having a aggravating day yesterday. Myself included. And some of it has spilled over to today.

MAC said...

We have an ongoing battle keeping our dogs corralled in the backyard too. It wouldn't be such a problem, but we live in the country. My little Shih Tzus would make a nice meal for the wildlife out there.

JiEL said...

In the last 6 years of my teaching times, I was teaching English to French students (here we mainly speak French in Province de Québec).
Those students where disfonctional ones that were not able to follow normal classes. Intelligent but with bad behaviors or learning problems etc...

So, I did have many «issues» of your kind from students telling their parents that I did this or that but many times to cover up their own bad behaviors.

One week before retiring, I even had a BIG problem when a boy told his parents that I had sexualy touched him... Imagine my state of mind then 2 days before retiring...
AND, most of all, that alleged «touch» was in front of 15 students...That was so rediculous....
But I was devastated: my luck is that my adjoint-director didn't believe this «bratt student» and helped me to get out of this bad situation.
He talked to the parents and all was ok...

You can be sure that I really understand your concern.

By the way, we had a policy in my school and many others I was teaching in, that every teacher that is planning a massive event had to say it long time before so we could plan our exams or tests knowing when many students could be absent...

Have a nice Wednesday..
(((( HUGS )))) from another teacher.

silvereagle said...

My aggravation last Thursday was on a plane for 8+ hours in a seat that some overweight person before me had not only flattened but caused the seat bottom to tilt forward so that I was sliding out of it for the complete journey!! Ouch!! I gave a note to the stewardess at the end of the trip saying please do not let anyone else suffer in it. There were absolutely no other seats on the flight!!!

naturgesetz said...

It's really annoying and disappointing that in the USA sports are more important than academics. It's not just that coach, and it's not just your school; it's the mindset of the vast majority of adults in this country: they care a lot more about how the football team is doing than about what the students are learning and how well they're being educated. Grr!

And false accusations! You're lucky that this is one that's so easily disproven. But again, it's annoying and disappointing that some people have no compunction about making false accusations (or committing perjury in court) to avoid the consequences of their actions, or just to make trouble for someone they dislike.

Robert said...

I completely feel your aggravation. I had an incident during my student teaching where I was asked to change a grade for an athlete. I politely refused, but the grade was changed by my supervising teacher. He tried to rationalize it, but I lost some respect for him because of it.

You know that you are doing a good job. Hold strong, the truth always comes out and the best thing is to talk with parents about their concerns and simply listen. Sometimes, that's all it takes.

JiEL said...

Sorry but as I'm more a French speaking man, what is a «grade» that you refused to change?

Thank you to put some light on it..

Friendly retired teacher.

Amanda said...

Sorry for the frustrating day. Sending you happy and positive vibes! :)

Anonymous said...

Ugh, that is a day and a half!!! I agree with you 100%. You deserve to be aggravated. Now go have a nice mint julep or something, and relax! And no, I don't mind a rant every now and then, I do it myself.

Peace <3
Jay

David Jeffreys said...

Since when did you get dogs, Joe? I thought you only pet is HRH, the royal cat.