Back to School Blues

It's that time of the year: the end of the summer, and thus time to start getting back to school. This year, more than any other year in recent memory, I hate that this time of the year has arrived. I've had a pleasant, restful summer. I did not hold a full-time or part-time job, but I most certainly did not sit around doing nothing, either. I had a number of household tasks that I tackled and completed, most notably creating a family recipe book complete with pictures for ease in storing our favorite recipes, reorganizing the items in the kitchen to better utilize space, and going through all of my old teaching supplies that were sitting around in boxes in the garage and getting rid of what I would no longer use. I also experimented a bit with my breadmaker, making various delicious types of bread, and I took care of all the laundry and cleaning during the week so that my husband and I could spend more time with each other over the weekend when he was off from work. I am sad that since school is starting soon, my schedule will once again be very busy and I will have little free time.

This Monday I went to school to start setting up and getting things ready for the upcoming school year. I expected to go to school three to four days this week to get the computer lab completely set up and at least begin a bit of my planning for the first week of school. In May, I was informed that our building PTO had voted to install counters along the walls to streamline the lab a bit by allowing the removal of the old, rickety tables that the computers currently rest on, and to ease in summer storage, and I was told that this would probably take place over the summer to be ready for the fall. However, at this point, the counters have still not been installed, and there is no definite date that this will be done. It may be done as early as this Thursday and Friday, or as late as during the first week of school. The workers talked with me and informed me that they had to order steel brackets to hold up the counters and that they were waiting on this shipment, which is supposed to take seven to ten days. Perhaps they could have taken care of this earlier during the three months that we had off from school instead of cutting it so close to the first day of school. Because of this mess with the counters, I was only able to set up four computers on the side of the room that will not have any counters installed, and still have 17 more to set up whenever this task is completed, since I will not waste my time setting them up on the tables only to have to take them down once the counters are completed. So the three to four days I had hoped to spend at school were cut down to two, in which I took care of whatever setup I could in the lab.

My salary has been my main complaint about my job since I started in 2004. In a nutshell, the problem is this: I am doing full-time teacher work while receiving aide pay, and in reality am not aiding anyone as I am the sole computer teacher. There have been movements every spring by the district technology director to push this position to a full-time teaching position with the appropriate pay, but there is always an excuse as to why this cannot be done. Last year instead of sitting quietly and letting the director do all the work, I actively participated in this movement by allying myself with a teacher on the salary committee, and speaking with my principal and other teachers in the district that hold this position. I landed in a bit of hot water with the district superintendent, who seemed to think that I was rallying the other computer aides together for nefarious purposes (I wasn't; I was merely contacting them to see where they stood on the issue and to discover whether or not I was the only one who wanted this change). His position on the issue is that if I wanted full-time pay, I should have accepted the fourth grade position that was offered to me last August instead of keeping a job that I truly love that should have full-time pay based on the work and hours I am putting in. So, naturally, he did not bump up my position to receive full-time pay for this school year, citing that there wasn't enough money in the budget, and what started as a small problem has expanded into a bitterness about my job that infects every day that I go to work, and a tremendous dislike of my superintendent.

On Monday, I discovered brand new flatscreen monitors in the lab for all of the student computers. It was very nice of the district to do this, I have no doubt that the students will love them, and they will allow the computers to take up much less space on the tables and counters. However, the standard monitors that they are replacing are two years old, and there have been absolutely no problems with these monitors. It's like the district is trying to keep up the appearance of being on the cutting edge of technology by purchasing these flatscreen monitors, yet behind the scenes these nagging problems with the elementary computer teacher/aide salary are still there and unresolved. Also: not enough money in the budget, MY ASS. The new monitors are a cheapie brand, but twenty-one of them cost the district roughly $3000, which is no chump change.

These incidents do not give me much confidence about the upcoming school year.

Mystery Neighbors

My husband and I have a nice split-level home in a quiet neighborhood within a smaller town just on the outskirts of Springfield, and we really love where we live. While most of our neighbors are not close to our age or what I would call overly friendly, we have become acquainted with most of them. But one of our neighbors remains a complete mystery.

The people that bought the house directly behind ours moved in at around the same time that we did. For a long time, we didn't see much of them. Last summer we would occasionally see the man of the family mowing the lawn. To this day, neither my husband nor I have seen the lady of the house. We were informed by a neighbor who had met them that she is a pharmaceutical sales representative. I know nothing about that field, but perhaps her job involves a lot of traveling. That would explain why it seems that these people are hardly ever home, judging from the lack of lights on within their house and the state of their lawn, which has become infested with weeds that have taken over nearly all of the grass.

These mysterious neighbors have taken on a few annoying characteristics this year. For some reason, every once in a while, they like to leave all three of their flood lights on all night. Normally this would not be a big deal, but since the neighborhood is relatively new, there are no tall trees to obstruct this light from coming into our house, and while our wooden blinds help to block most of the light, there is always a bit that sneaks through and keeps me from falling asleep up in our master bedroom. The only reason I can think of for putting on backyard flood lights would be if you are having a party in the backyard. Maybe these people have been burglarized and want to keep the backyard well-lit? Perhaps they want their house to be seen by space? Or the outrageous theory I have come up with: perhaps they are vampires and do their feeding at night, leaving the lights on to guide them home? It's not unbelievable; maybe that's why we've never seen the woman, at least in the daylight.

So BUMMED!

It's been ten years since I graduated from high school. I really can't believe it's already been such a long time; there are some things that I can remember from high school that feel like they happened just yesterday. I remember my unhinged Spanish teacher who was so difficult to please, pushing through the crowded hallways in between classes, study hall doing homework in the library, eating lunch in the small cafeteria while watching Days of Our Lives, my history teacher whose entire class period consisted of us asking him questions while he lounged in his leather desk chair in the front of the room, and taking too long in the mornings to have to run to the bus, only to miss it a handful of times and have to ask my dad to drive me to school. High school wasn't a terrible experience for me. I definitely wasn't popular, but I wasn't overly nerdy; I was average enough that I sort of blended into the background and quietly did my own thing. Knowing what I know now and the person that I have evolved into, I think I would definitely jump at the chance to do high school all over again. I think it would be a lot more fun and rewarding a second time around. (Now college, on the other hand? I would definitely never do over. Too much work and stress.)

Since it's been ten years, I have been anxiously awaiting news of a reunion. I probably wouldn't talk to very many people if I did attend a reunion, but it would be interesting to see how all of the jocks and slackers and band geeks all turned out, and to reconnect with people that I've sadly lost touch with. Information was finally posted late last week and included a date: August 18th. Unfortunately, the first day of school will be on August 16th, with the teachers reporting back to work a week earlier. There is no way that I will be able to miss the first days of school, which means that I can't attend my reunion that I've been looking forward to. I'm so crushed right now!

Surprise of the Day

Near the end of every school year, all of the faculty at the school where I teach come together and choose a teacher and staff member of the year. Last week teachers were asked to give nominations for these two categories, and the ballots were put in everybody's mailbox early this morning.

To my surprise, my name is included as a choice for staff member of the year. I was so incredibly shocked to see this that you could have knocked me over with a feather. I very much enjoy the school that I work at, and feel that I work very hard at my job (considering I don't earn NEAR the amount of money that I should be earning considering I am contracted as an aide but in actuality doing the work of a teacher), but I was beginning to think that no one else noticed that. It is so nice to be recognized! It's a complete cliché, but it really is an honor to just be nominated.

FINALLY

I am relieved to see that there is finally a DVD edition of Mrs. Doubtfire coming out in May. This is one of my favorite movies, features a hilarious Robin Williams and many quotable lines, and has a very realistic ending. I cannot wait to finally own this! I gave away my VHS copy before moving last year, so it's been a while since I've seen this last. I've been waiting quite a long time for this news.

It's Here!

I didn't think it would ever arrive, but it's FINALLY here: Spring Break. My school district has been continuously in session since returning from the ice storm in late January (well, with one unscheduled break last Friday for the basketball game) and everyone in the building has been itching for this break from school for quite some time now. I don't know who was happier at the end of the school day today, the teachers or the students. I don't have any big plans and am not going anywhere, but I'm just so relieved to have a little bit of time off. I plan on sleeping in, reading my two new books from the library, playing Sims, and just basically relaxing. It's going to RULE.

All in the name of SCHOOL PRIDE!

The superintendent decided early on Monday to cancel school on Friday due to the fact that the boys' basketball team has made the semifinal game on Friday morning in Columbia. My feelings regarding the issue are well documented in my previous entry, and I still cannot get over the fact that we have a day off of school because of freaking basketball. I did not think that was possible.

On the local six o'clock news, a story was done about the impromptu cancellation. An upset parent was interviewed, and brought up some very good points regarding the fact that we've missed so many days of school so far because of the weather only to add another, and that this cancellation causes problems for parents that work who now need to plan for their children to be home from school on such late notice. The superintendent was also interviewed, blathering about how exciting it was that the boys' basketball team was doing so well and how he thought the team deserved the town's support and practically no one would be at school if he didn't make the decision to cancel it for Friday (which is SO NOT TRUE). Basically, the superintendent looked like a giant idiot whose priorities are out of whack in the piece, and I LOVE IT.