Wednesday, Dec. 08, 2004
It's really only Wednesday? Really?, posted at 4:04 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Right now, my life is a flurry. At school, the mounting mountain of papers to grade on my desk is excruciating to look at. I have been giving a reading check quiz every day to my 9th graders, checking if they have read their assigned chapters in the Odyssey. I have been making up 6-question multiple choice quizzes for every single chapter. We sometimes grade them in class, but sometimes we don't. I have now given eleven of them. Eleven times 105 ninth graders. That's over 1000 quizzes in the last three weeks.In the 11th grade class, I've assigned reading for next class that I have not read yet. If I don't have time to read it before tomorrow, I don't know what I'm going to do. And I have to work at the restaurant tonight.
All of my colleagues seem to be feeling similar stresses. Today, a girl came into our English office, took a plastic fork from on top of the microwave, turned around, and left. We were all so aghast that we didn't say anything. We provide all the stuff for our office. It's certainly not that we're concerned about a fork, but that we weren't asked, and that she just came in. Plus, we were all just in a bad mood to begin with. I'm worried my friend is going to resign. She has to have twelve credits by September to continue her certification, and with 160 students and 400 essays on her desk, it's nearly impossible to take courses. Not to mention the money issue. She, like me, makes just over $2000 a month after taxes are taken out, for ten months of the year. So, all bills need to be paid (for me, it's $1641 for my required bills) and money saved for the summer from that. I know everyone has financial issues, but most other professions do not require someone to go to graduate school to keep his/her job. Summer classes are a possibility, but the financial stresses still happen for those of us who are not allowed to be paid in the summer.
Aargh. Pretty whiny today. So we shut the office door - a rarity - and took a 26-minute break from the kids during our lunch.
I'm also increasingly mystified by decisions and announcements made by the new guy in charge in the principal's office. To say that he is helping to make morale very low is an understatement. A student group has been planning a Saturday trip to NYC for a while now, fundraising and stuff. There was an announcement about it, and a few minutes later, he interrupted to say, "I have an important announcement for you all right now. That NYC trip is cancelled. I was never informed about it and therefore I am cancelling it." I was shocked. It is very true that proper paperwork may not have been filled out, but there are certainly a number of better ways to address the issue than that rash public announcement. And, the guy was out for six weeks, so it may have happened then.
Ah well. I probably shouldn't post that story to the Internet. I'm going to, for now.
Feeling very overworked right now, and I'm also heading over to the restaurant in a few moments. This is actually the time of day when I'm relaxing - the twenty minutes I have to change, let the dog out, and be back out there for job #2. May the tipping gods be kind to me tonight. Last night was decent. For every jerk ($9 on a $61 bill; $5 on a $39 bill), there were some nice ones ($25 on $82, $23 on 77) and I ended up walking with around $80. Could I double it tonight? It's not unheard of. Although it is nice out and often that is a deterrent for our restaurant and its stick-to-your-ribs menu.
I'm exhausted and feeling stressed out. I overslept on my gym trip today. The number of papers I have to grade is incredible. And I'm so overwhelmed that I'm thinking of showing Gattacca tomorrow alongside Frankenstein.