4 more days, including today.
I took Thursday and Friday off because there wasn't anything for me to be doing. There isn't anything for me to be doing right now either, but here I am at work.
On Thursday I found out that I officially do not have a job next year. You can imagine my reaction.
I took pretty much everything home out of my "office" over the last couple of weeks so that on the last day of school I can just leave. Also - a lot of it was stuff that I never used. I had my career portfolio, my student teaching portfolio, my resource binder (everything I need to know about teaching band) and a bunch of other things. So I took them all home. I knew my office would be used as a practice room (which it always is) while I was gone, and I didn't want there to be anything left that kids could possibly screw with. I was assured that if anyone was in my "office" while I was gone, they would be supervised. I knew that was a bunch of crap, because every time my "office" is used while I'm gone, kids find a way to make a mess. And generally? I like the kids I work with. But not when they're idiots. And for some reason, they spend a lot of time being idiots. Especially when there isn't an adult around.
These are the things I left in my office: My old laptop, in its case (it's passworded), a blanket, and an open sleeve of saltine crackers in the top drawer of my desk. I should have known they would be rifling through my desk. So when I came in this morning, I opened my drawer to find saltine crackers scattered and smashed all on the inside of my desk. Seriously? I was pretty angry. And since I know there won't be any consequences for anyone even if I did make an issue out of it, I can't say anything to them. What I want to say is, "Thanks a lot for smashing crackers all over the inside of my desk. Why do you have to be so dumb?" But my guess the response will be about like when, at the beginning of the year, I had to tell a bunch of idiot boys "Thanks for throwing a penny at my face. It's a good thing you missed. Who threw it?" (by the way, I knew who threw it - and they weren't man enough to say they did) and they all stared at me for a few seconds before the teacher, and the class moved on. Nobody was disciplined and the problem continued throughout the rest of the year. Just last month when a teacher covering the same class was also hit in the head with a penny, the students responsible got Saturday detention, or in-school suspension or something. Apparently I'm not important enough for kids to actually get in trouble for being jerks to me. THAT'S why I hate this job. I have no authority to do anything. I've been reassured that I would be backed up if I ever need to discipline anyone, but that has not been my experience. Mostly it gets ignored, or the students' word is taken over mine. THAT'S why I hate this job.
Let's ask any other teacher in the school to put 10-12 teenage boys in their office unsupervised for 90 minutes and see what they say. But I'm not a teacher, so why would I care? Like I have anything in my office I wouldn't want people to mess with. Except that I am a certified teacher in the state of Idaho, and if you give me a space and say it's my personal space at work, then I expect you to stay out of it. At least I had enough foresight to remove anything valuable (my clarinet, or guitar, and every other personal item) but I honestly did not even think saltines would be an issue. It didn't even cross my mind.
So, Hallelujah, I don't have a job next year.
I was thinking - maybe I don't want to post this publicly on the internet, lest a future employer find it and think I hate kids. But I think they would understand my issue with having them make a mess out of my personal things/space. I don't think it's an unreasonable request for students to respect my property.
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