It's Not all Rainbows and Sunshine

Well, I just finished my first day of teaching and if I were a lesser man, I surely would be driven to drink. As it is, I am driven to drink.

My main problem is the lack of organization or proper training for teachers at this school. Basically, my training consisted of shadowing two days of classes and reading a six page hand-out. In addition, I dug up a draft version of a teachers guide that my predecessor had made, and begged the temp teacher to write up some notes for me. Studying the three documents together gave me a rough idea what the hell was going on.

Each class has its own folder with the English book(s) that the students are working with along with the attendance sheet and miscellaneous other stuff. I avoided a potential mishap by recognizing that the class times on two of the folders were wrong. It's a good thing I came in four hours early.

The second most frustrating thing that happened to day was when I noticed that one of the folders was empty except for and attendance sheet. It didn't even have written on/in it where the classroom was. I asked my supervisor about it and instead of helping me, she berated me for not knowing what I was teaching. I guess around here instead of helping out green teachers, they are just shamed into coming into work FIVE hours earlier. Well to hell with that--four and a half is where I draw the line...maybe four and three-quarters.

The first most frustrating thing that I had to deal with today is a little child named Ben. The kid comes into class, doesn't have any work done, refuses to do any work, disrupts the class, and refuses to go out into the hall...well he was saved by the bell on that one. I was about to pick him up, sling him over my shoulder and haul him bodily out into the hall.

Okay that's all for now. I'm going to go home and read the Bible and get drunk on gin. Yeah, seriously.