Epiphany in Baltimore

2001-12-06

Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com

Last night was a lot of fun. Two fellow female, married colleagues took me out for a tour of the city. I should have done it in September. I now feel like I have a much better idea of what the city has to offer, and just how much cool stuff is here. I saw Federal Hill, Charles Village, Bolton Hill, places with names like Brew Gardens and the Hippo Bar, and some beautiful views of the city.

They were so nice. One of them gave me a little Christmas tree because I told them about my current tree, which is actually a Douglas Fir houseplant that I've strung some lights on. The plant has buckled under their weight, and is now growing sideways. It doesn't look like I strung lights on it, but that I threw a big wad of lights on it. It looks awful. But the new little one is nice.

We ate at a Thai restaurant. One of the ladies paid for all three of our dinners, which made me a little uncomfortable, but I didn't argue too vocally. I'm really broke, until tonight at midnight. Our 5% raise goes into effect on this paycheck, which is very cool. Next paycheck, we'll get our retroactive wad of money from our other paychecks with the raise implemented.

I didn't get home until 8pm. I didn't bring any work home, which was wonderful. After grading like crazy all week until nearly midnight, I got all papers graded in time for midterm progress reports. A lot of the other teachers were telling me just to guesstimate, but it makes me feel good that I actually did them. They had to be done eventually, after all. Now, I'm all caught up. I only have about seven kids failing in my three classes, which is a pretty decent number. A lot of them want to do makeup work. Next semester, with all new kids, I may disallow makeup work altogether. It's just too much freaking work. Kids need to take responsibility.

I got yelled at by my principal yesterday. He's under fire right now from all the staff. We had our first all-staff meeting on Monday, and this one teacher who had just found out his wife got a job in Germany and was moving in March, totally went off on him and the rest of the administration. During the "good news" portion of the meeting, he stood up and said, "Well, I have some good news and some bad news," then listed a long list of very specific grievances against administration in front of the whole faculty and administration. It was so uncomfortable. There was a smattering of applause afterwards. Folks really aren't happy, and morale is really low around here. It was a pretty eventful meeting. Later, faculty voted on a proposal to eliminate one of our planning days and have another teaching day to get kids ready for their finals in late January. The proposal passed 26-18 (we have about 80 teachers, so many obviously did not vote). I did not know enough about the issue to feel like I should vote, but I was afraid I'd get yelled at, so I did vote. I voted for it, because my department head was sitting right next to me and she voted for it. Anyhow, afterwards, the woman supporting it said a comment, "Wow, (school name), I'm really proud of you! You definitely put your students' interests in front of your own!". Which, of course, set off a host of folks who were on the other side of the issue. Their argument was that planning does as much, or more, for students than a day of instruction does, and that time of year is horrible for teachers to get grades in, portfolios completed, and exams planned. The day of planning was needed, they argued. The woman who made the comment snapped back, "I can say what I want to say." Woah.

Anyhow, back to my story. Apparently, our principal was patrolling my floor, and I was walking around my room at the end of class, crouching down in students' desks and giving them their current grades. Apparently, one of my kids snuck out of my room during this time. He got caught. My principal was very nice about it, though. He didn't yell, which I heard he does to teachers. He didn't do it in public, which I heard he did - he took me aside. And he was very nice. But I still am pissed off at the kid for sneaking out. He left his stuff in my room, leading me to believe he could have just left and come back and me not have noticed. He told the principal I said he could go without a pass. Whatever.

Tonight, I'm going to the annual "Lighting of the Memorial" event at the beautiful Mount Vernon area of the city. The first Washington Monument is here (the DC one was built 40 years later), and apparently they decorate it with lights every year. Our mayor, who lives a couple of blocks from us, will light the lights, and our well-renowned choir will perform. I hope it'll be cool. I think it will be. It may even be worth missing Survivor.