It's break, and I need it. I have been running so hard that I don't know how to stop. Seven weeks after we come back from break, it will be summer vacation. But it will be a long, hard seven weeks. I have quite a few IEPs left to do. And it's time to make sure all the seniors have everything done in order to graduate (very stressful). And there's paperwork, reams and reams of paperwork, due at the end of the year. My mother was an elementary school teacher, a Reading Specialist, and she tells me what they had to go through at the end of the year in the pre-computer days. I guess I should be grateful. But there is one spreadsheet I haven't kept up, and thinking about doing that . . . well, it makes me nauseated. And then there are the grades.
All hell has broken loose on the HR side at work. My Assistant Principal was fired (unfairly). The Director of Special Education was also fired (she deserved it). That happened a while ago, but they told her she could stay till June. I guess they changed their minds because they walked her and her personal belongings out the door last Tuesday. There's only one person at the manager level over there (normally there are two). There are not enough Program Specialists (the third level down and the folks we deal with the most). One gave them two days notice and moved to another state. Another went out on medical leave, and I think they were down one to start with. So no one picks up the phone or answers emails. I had one Program Specialist come over for an IEP (in and of itself a miracle), but she was a nervous wreck. She was so out of it that she didn't seem to understand what was going on. Stress, I am sure.
In my instructional unit (a weird conglomeration of alt ed sites), most of the teachers are unhappy with our Principal (in part for firing the Assistant Principal, but also for other -- good -- reasons.) We had a secret meeting with the union president to try to figure out what can be done. I am ordinarily a rabble-rouser, but I had nothing to do with organizing this although I attended and cheered them on.
Admin and Special Ed moved a much-liked colleague -- who was a big part of my daily life at work -- to another site and gave me her caseload, which made me both sad and overworked. She still stops by and visits (bless her).
The students seem to be having more problems right now too. Just coincidence, I guess. Except for the four who are stressed about graduating, the causes are completely different.
On the home front, the
maintenance required light went on in my car. I took it in, and it will be a five hundred dollar repair. And I can't drive it far till my Thursday appt to get it fixed. So my mini-trip to visit a friend is off. Spending money on the car instead of fun sucks.
Oh, and I am on a diet because my arthritis is worse, and restricting some foods really does help.
AND I am working on a short paper for an online course. Normally, I might actually enjoy that, but not right now. Right now, I just feel *grrrrrrr*
There's actually more. Lots more. God, I do not love the couple of months before the end of the school year.