Today was an interesting day. It was completely up and down. I had to write two referrals because of a crazy incident in one of my classes. I was really pissed off. I am not even going to go into it, but it was ridiculous. So I was sort of feeling all shaken up and pissed off, and then I found out that I got a balloon candygram. Two of my students sent it to me and wrote the nicest message on it. So that made me feel a whole lot better. They are two boys that can be extremely obnoxious, but I really like them anyway. I decided to take it as a thoughtful and sweet gesture rather than a kissing ass/trying to be funny gesture.
I am still a little bit upset over the referrals because I am not completely sure if one of the boys started things on purpose or not, but he is really mad at me for writing him up. We have always gotten along really well, and I really like him. It's hard to be in the position where you feel like you have to write someone up. I hate power issues and conflict, so that makes is hard for me. I am the kind of person who plays conversations over in my mind hundreds of times, and I get this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach if even one person makes some small comment to me. I obviously have developed a thicker skin since I have been teaching, but I still have this problem. At the end of the day if my stomach is hurting, I have to think back and remember what caused it, and evaluate whether it was really that bad or what. I mean it can be the smallest stupidest things. Any kind of conflict is bad and uncomfortable for me. I wish I could stop being so sensitive about everything.
The second boy, who really caused things to go over the top came and talked to me. We talked things out and he totally understood why I felt the need to give him a referral and everything is fine between us.
Also I made a positive call to the parents of the girl I wrote about before who wrote on her final that she can sometimes be a snatch to me. I told them how well behaved she has been doing lately, and her mom was very pleased about the whole thing and thought it was great that I was making positive calls. So that made me feel a little bit better, too.
I am so glad that it is a four day weekend. I just found out how many days they are cutting, but we don't know yet when those days will be. We now have a total of fifteen cut for the year. Pretty crazy, but Portland has it worse--a month! I just read an article that the state only will let them do that for this year, because it is like an emergency budget thing, so they are making plans for what to do next year. One proposal is that the class ratio will be one teacher to 42 students. Can you believe that? 36 is difficult. 42 will be impossible. Oregon is about to turn into one of those places where everyone goes to private school, and it's really sad because I have always thought Oregon had a pretty good public education system. The voters here are such jerks.
The latest I heard was because of what's going on, California districts are coming up here offering people to come to LA and San Diego. There is a $5000 signing bonus, $52,000 a year to start, and they will pay your moving expenses. Um, if this is not a myth, that is sure a tempting offer. Obviously the schools might be awful with scary kids, but that is a really good deal. Here that's what you make once you have been teaching forever and you can't go higher than that in salary. I make about $34,000, with a masters degree, on my third step, but the days being cut will decrease my pay by almost 8%. (For non-teachers, in most schools you get increases in pay based on whether you have a masters degree, and each year you move up on the pay scale. Other people without a masters are making more like $28,000 in their first years).
If it was just me, I would move to California or Nevada in a second. I'm sick of this depressing weather.
I had better get going. I am going to Justin's for a relaxing FOUR DAY WEEKEND. Thanks, budget cutters.
