2001-09-20
Stressed out - meet the teachers nite, posted at 9:29 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I'm stressed out. I'm disappointed in myself for letting myself fall into a plan-by-the-day pattern in only the third week of the year. I hate my Freshmen.But otherwise, things are good.
Last night was "Meet the Teachers" Night for parents, and it was okay. I had about twenty parents come from my three classes (about 90 students). The lack of parental involvement, even at a good school like the one I'm in, mystifies me. The thing took an hour, and I just think it would mean so much for teenagers to have their parents show interest in their schooling. Even if the teenagers act like they don't want their folks to come, I think it would do them good. So I can't believe that I only had about a quarter of my students' parents come to the school. Then again, the less parents who come, the less I had to do.
While it was thrilling to be at school until 7:30pm, I was sure glad to go home. Then, I couldn't sleep well, because my internal clock was all wound up from the nervousness of having to meet with parents. Today, I'm tired, and struggling tofigure out what I'm going to do with my classes. My sophomores start "The Scarlet Letter" today, which is just fine - I could teach that book in my sleep. (Today, I just might have to.) My freshmen, on the other hand, are going to be suprised with a brand new seating chart today, because they simply can't handle paying attention for more than 25 minutes at a time with the current arrangement. I'm not necessarily a fan of assigning seats, but I need to try it. 7th hour is stressing me out way too much.
I have a poster in my word with a bunch of faded hate-type words - cracker, guinea, freak, queer, nigger, slut, fag, fatso, wop, geek, slant-eye, etc. - with a bold message over them that says, "Words Hurt. In a perfect world, you wouldn't even think them." I swiped it from MSU res life somewhere, and since hate words are one of my biggest pet peeves with teenage kids, I put it up. I recognize the controversial nature of the poster - for example, Gale thought the poster was crummy even for a college res life office, because she feels it drains the impact of the words - but I think it, at the very least, gets kids thinking and it reinforces my stance on that type of language in my classroom. I thought about taking it down for parents' night, since I don't want to rock the boat, but then decided it would be crummy of me to take down stuff that I normally have up. So I left it up. Not only did no parents complain, I got two compliments from parents about that specific poster. I also made up some BS that we'd be using the poster with our study of "Huck Finn," which uses the n-word over 200 times, which actually sounded like a good idea after it came out of my mouth despite the fact that I hadn't actually thought of it before.
Anyhow, parents' night was generally successful. I signed up pretty much every parent on my e-mail listserve I'm going to be sending out a couple of times a week to parents updating them on the class' progress, major assignments, and homework. I think the parents were appreciative of the effort. I was nervous in my presentations, but they went well.
Still, I can't wait for this week to get over. I feel so stressed out right now, planning day-to-day and not feeling like I have a big picture. This weekend will consist of of two things: planning and drinking. Probably not at the same time, though.
I can't believe it's only Thursday.