Dirty Work

There aren't words to describe how I feel about staff meetings. I doubt that much needs to be said. I know that everybody that has at least one co-worker probably has to have similar meetings. But it's just that they never seem to come with good news. Today was no exception. Among other, less depressing but more annoying things, I learned that a student at my school, for some reason or another, told the principal that she was going to step in front of a car (our school being conveniently located at a major intersection), and then she did. And guess what? She got hit by that car. No word yet as to whether or not she's okay, but I think it goes without saying that regardless of any broken bones, she's not really okay.

After that pick-me-up meeting, I got a note from one of our VPs that informed me that one of my grade 10's had a parent who was fatally ill, was going in for surgery this week and might not survive the procedure. Would I please take this into consideration if attendance, attitude or work completion became an issue? P.S. She doesn't know I know, so keep my mouth shut about it.

This kid's dad is dying - I don't know why she's even at school. Again, words fail me. Time and time again, I am reminded of how what happens in my cramped and dirty classroom is only a tiny fraction of what is going on in the lives of some of my students. How am I supposed to make Life of Pi or Hamlet seem important to these kids? Should I even bother?

It's times like these that I wonder at my friends and colleagues whose job it is to counsel these kids through times of trial. I know that their job is vastly different from my job and I marvel at how they don't through themselves off a bridge at the negativity of it all. I LOVE my job. It brings me a so many kinds of joy, but what is the joy in their job? I know some of you are reading this and you have answers for me, so please, after a day of wiping sh*t off of your office walls, what do you do to make your day feel better? Does it always involve a bottle of wine? Do you hug your kids and your cats and thank God that your life isn't as bad of some of these students' lives?

I guess in the end, we all feel like what we do is important to our kids and that's what gives our work meaning. Cudos to you guys for doing that very dirty work. You should be excused from at least one staff meeting each month!

Just Another Day In Paradise

Warning: Going to work may be hazardous to my health.

Two weeks ago today, I arrived at work and was called into an emergency staff meeting. We were informed that a student at our school had invited people on her facebook page to join her at a protest out front of our school at the beginning of last period that day. The principal informed us that he believed that this was due to some misunderstanding on the student's part (no thanks to his bumbling communication skills no doubt) and that he would be meeting with the parties involved during a meeting at lunch.

By the end of the day, we were in lock-down due to a bomb threat. Yes, that's right. While it's true that the protest situation had been diffused over lunch, it seems that some bright young man was so disappointed about the lack of a mass student walk-out that he phoned in a bomb threat after lunch. Good thing he had his cell phone with him!

So while we all waited in our classrooms, doors locked, blinds drawn, (those of us who are lucky enough to having functioning window-coverings in our classrooms that is) we waited for the bomb-sniffing dogs to arrive from Peel (yep, Peel, because the Toronto dogs were on their day off - I swear, I'm not kidding.) and roughly two hours later, approximately 15 minutes after the end of the school day and school week, two police officers guided by a very unfortunate teacher (a retiree doing sub work no less!) knocked on all of the classroom doors and escorted the students out of the building. No, not the teachers, just the students. We, lucky souls that we are, had yet another staff meeting.

In the end, there was no real cause for concern. No bomb was found and the only harm done was to the already frayed nerves of some of the teachers - not because of the bomb, but because they were stuck in their classrooms for hours with their students without having prepared anything to do! The next time somebody makes a joke to me about having the summer off, I'm going to lock them in a room with 30 teenagers and nothing to do and see if they need a break at the end of it!

Needless to say, my colleagues and I all headed immediately for the local watering hole after we were cut loose from the school. When I got back to work on Monday, it was. business as usual.

And some people think teachers have it easy!