Words cannot describe how thankful I am that the first semester of the 2021-2022 school year is over. It’s been the most challenging 16 weeks I’ve ever had in teaching.
This year my self-contained class is eleven students, ten of whom seniors. All the kids were well behaved with few disciplinary problems. The challenge was each of my seniors has varying course requirements to earn credits towards their graduation. Their official transcripts dictated me setting them up in a wide variety of classes. Normally we teachers are used to running and planning 5 to 6 courses total. This semester I had 23 different courses to plan, monitor and teach! Back in August, it took me two weeks just to sort out this mess and properly plan matters out. This wasn’t the kids’ fault, or anyone else’s, it was just unfortunate happenstance.
The best way to describe this mish-mash of classes is this: Pour a bag of M&Ms, a bag of Skittles and a five lb. bag of brown sugar on the floor. Now separate each of those elements with a broom.
Add to all this, thanks to that bastard virus we’re all still masked up. Movement around the school is limited to staying in our room & P.E. time in the gym. These students are tired of school and understandably restless. They ask for and get frequent trips to the restroom just to move about and get a break. I don’t blame them, again it’s bad circumstances and they’re making the best of it.
I can’t forget to note how scheduling left me with a load of IEP meetings. Between late August and mid-November, I had to be a part of 13 such reviews and transition meetings. Three of these meetings were for one student due to red tape and other needs. Another student required 2 meet-ups. And it’s not just the meetings, it’s the planning and other paperwork that needs to be covered.
To make things more difficult, during this semester, our school has been short of staff members. We’re still in need of teachers, paraprofessionals and behavior workers. Everyone in the school is exhausted from covering for staffers who were absent for whatever reasons. Ms. Cat, my assistant is a fantastic help to my room but even she had to miss several days due to unforeseen things that came up.
Still, everyone with all hands-on-deck, made it to the Winter Break. I told some co-workers we might be working with a skeleton crew, but that skeleton has arms that are long and strong. Anyone who knows me knows nobody outworks me, it’s one of my best assets. It was that way in my radio days and remains that way with teaching; yet these past four months were harsh and hard.
The best news out of all this is one of our students made a full transition to their home school and three other kiddos graduated! I’m thrilled for and proud of them. The hard work they put in and the support we give them does pay off.
Come early January when we return, I’ll be starting with a lighter caseload of students and fewer courses to track. It SHOULD go smoother and hopefully what I dealt with between mid-August and now made me stronger and more bullet proof of tough challenges.
For our winter break, I’m happily laying way low. No need to run out to a bunch of holiday events and that’s just fine by me. This is a chance to re-charge and catch my breath.
TIME FOR A COLD BOTTLE OF SHINER BOCK BEER. OR TWO OR THREE…
Enjoy the holidays folks, I’ll be back in January. Class is happily dismissed!
In wrapping up this semester and this year, I defer to Eric Church’s tribute to hard workers, “Drink in my Hand.”