Friday, April 3, 2020

TGIF



My creative juices are just not flowing today. It’s a rainy and dreary day. I have work to do today, so at least I’ll be busy. At least I hope I’ll be busy. Having to document everything I do is driving me a bit crazy. It wouldn’t be so bad if I could just make it up, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. I need to be able to show that I did produce work. Eventually, the world will go back to some kind of normalcy.

6 comments:

Hot guys said...

Eh, gotta do whatcha gotta do.

And yes, it will get better.

JiEL said...

Be patient and take it easy with Isabella by your side.

What we say now in Province of Quebec and Canada: "Ça va bien aller." (It'll be going well.)

Special thoughts to you Americans because it's not quite nice ALL what is going on in you country.
When «idiot 45» is telling the 3M company to stop sending masks to Canada, maybe he's forgetting that many Canadian exportations to USA are some health care stuff. We send thousands of nurses to Detroit from Windsor to help them. One example that our countries are all time allies.

That is very bad and sad decision from him not mentioning the masks supplies «steeled» in China's airports that were for France and Canada. That's how we see that DJT had some accointance with the MOB…

Dylan said...

I feel your pain. I didn't think documenting could ever be worse than IEP documentation, but I was wrong. I am about to pull my hair out, because I still have IEPs to do, but now I am documenting all of the work we do online in Google Classroom on every student, just as tediously as I would have to those students who are on an IEP, while also tailoring the material we are covering for online use, so I cannot use a large portion of the lesson plans and worksheets that I had already created for these last two months. I have been up to 2 or 3 in the morning for the last week, preparing pacing guides, powerpoints, and online activities.

I am also preparing packets for students who are not using Google Classroom, due to no internet or computer access, and, while I am able to use my lesson plans for these students, it is constant copying and packing the worksheets and all of the readings from the textbook and other sources that students are prohibited from taking home, and recording who has picked up a packet and contacting those who have not. I also have to deal with the parents coming in the classroom to pick up the packets and they want to talk, while I have students working in Google Classroom.

One parent told me, "Since you aren't working, can I talk to you about my child's behavior." I said, "Um, no. That is what parent teacher conferences that you never show up to are for." I was the one called into the office for not being flexible. Soon, I will be receiving the first packets back from students and I will have to grade them and document that. The students will have touched them all over, and they will have been God knows where, in all sorts of germs that are probably worse than COVID.

The administration has already warned us that these packets must be graded and kept for records, we must turn in all of the records of work we are required to keep, and we will go over them in evaluation. Otherwise, I would be so tempted to slap on some As for effort. Nothing has ever made me question my decision to become a teacher more than these last two weeks.

Joe said...

Dylan, I feel for you. Everyone is talking about the heroes that first responders are, an yes, they are heroes, but no one is talking much about the heroic efforts by teachers to keep their students educated. What you’re going through reminded me of when I taught online for Southern New Hampshire University. What a nightmare! I had to document everything, comment on everything, and constantly make announcements. I could barely keep up, and that’s from a person who when I was a teacher had 6 preps a day. I know just how exhausting it can be. You probably won’t be appreciated by the parents or students, or even the school district, for all the work you’re doing, but I appreciate it. The one bright side is, parents are now seeing what little assholes their children really are on a daily basis.

Anonymous said...

Joe,

Just wanted to let you and Dylan know you're hero's too! Everyone is in their own way.
You catalog history and presentations for the museum. Dylan slogs away grading lesson packets.
Justice would be served if administration people had to scan all the lesson packets so the contents
would be available electronically. Chin up and thanks for your hard work!

Alexander

Dylan said...

Thank you so much, Joe and Alexander! That means so much! Sorry for the rant, I was about to pull out my hair when I wrote that. Thanks for the space to vent, Joe!