Wow, it's already mid November, heck - PAST mid november, and I haven't posted anything in a really long time. I wonder why that is? I guess it's because I just feel like I don't have the time to sit down and write anything. I don't even have time to sit down and think about anything. But I will tell you one thing. It's a VERY SLOW lead up to the Thanksgiving holiday.
Today is our last day of school before we go on Thanksgiving break. The one good thing about our district (yes there is one thing), is that we get Wednesday off as part of our break. It used to be a professional development day, but they realized teachers were just calling in sick anyway. So I don't know if it's to our credit or to our loss, but we get this as an actual day off.
The only problem is, I should be teaching something right now. I shouldn't be blogging right now. So you may be saying to me-- well, stop wasting your time, go teach! Well, I would, if there was a class to teach. As you may have remembered, I teach at a juvenile detention home school, and the kids don't go anywhere. Except to their rooms. And that's where they are right now.
Why are they there? Oh I don't know, mostly because of the way the system is comprised. It's made up of people who couldn't care less about the well being of a child, let alone their education. I'm sitting in my room typing this because ALL the students are in their rooms because of--- wait for it--- not enough staff working.
So why aren't there enough staff? Did they call in sick? Did they have vacations planned? Well, NO. They had to take a kid somewhere for some kind of an appoinment. Does this require the whole staff to go? NO! No it doesn't. So why would there not be enough staff?
Because of money. That's right. Money. There are only enough staff to cover what is considered normal. But, you're thinking to yourself, this is an appointment. Couldn't they have planned for that?
And to answer that question, we would actually need someone to have a good understanding of why it's important to create consistency in this type of environment. Which there aren't many.
So I sit. I walk around, I read, I file, I do paper work, I prepare an art project for when we RETURN. But I'm done, here I sit. Not allowed to leave early, when the school is literally shut down, and the day before Thanksgiving break.
Yep, I'm a little bitter. And then I laugh a little bit. There are plenty things worse. There are PLENTY. But I hate idle time, and I'm running out of things to keep me busy. I guess I'll go back to reading... from a book even.
Too bad I didn't bring my own art supplies or I could be working on my own art work right now. Oh well, I guess I should just enjoy these quiet moments in my classroom, they are rare. I just wish my classroom wasn't contained inside barbed wire, self-locking doors, buzzers, guards, and windows that don't open.
Although, at least I do have a window.
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