Getting through the first week

The weather is much too cold. Today, it snowed in Atlanta and in the mountains. The little fountain in our back yard has been covered with a sheet of ice, much thicker than the one in Robert Frost's trough in "Apple Picking." The birds seem puzzled when they land at the edge for a drink of water. Tomorrow, the high is supposed be in the 20's!! I don't do well in cold weather.


Well, so far, school hasn't been too bad, knock on wood. The new 9th graders seem about 10 years older than last semester's 9th graders. The 11th graders seem like, well, 11th graders. I have seven or eight students from my Basic Reading class last semester now in my 9th Grade Comp/Lit. On the first day, one of them hugged me on the way into class and said, "My favorite teacher!" I don't want to jinx anything by saying it out loud, but so far, they have been pretty well-behaved. I've had the first taste in a long time of what it's like to teach without some mentally insane student blurting out, "Why are you teaching this? I don't need to know this!"

The Almighty EOCT results came in, and almost all my students passed, except for a few who are known drug addicts, repeaters, lunatics and demons-who-hate-school. Skylar, for instance, finished the test in five minutes, after doing a Christmas tree scantron, then put his head down for a nice, long nap. And this could be construed as the teacher's fault? Believe me, though, that's how the Administration tends to see it.

I still think I might be non-renewed next year. My portable-mate, the teacher who shares the other side of the portable, recently signed on for supervising after-school cheerleading. She admitted that she'd done it for added job security. Sports are highly valued at the school, and many of the teachers are after-school coaches of some kind. Well, I'm afraid I'm too old, tired, disinterested and ignorant to become a basketball coach at this point. That, plus age, plus the generous salary I receive as a Ph.D., would be perfect motive for them to can me in this time of budget cuts. I've already warned Liberto and he's been supportive. In addition, I may feel ready (i.e., burned out enough) to retire on my own.

Liberto calls every night from Venezuela. It's 80 degrees there, the lucky.