#ms. e

[187days]

Day Eleven

The staff shortage kept making itself known today.

We only have two custodians, and if you've been reading my previous entries you'll know we're expected to clean our own classrooms as a result, so I swept the floor when I arrived. Then I spent the rest of my prep time getting my boards ready, making copies, grading, answering emails...

One of those emails was a note from Mr. B that the social studies department's Quia subscription was about to expire. I was sure I'd renewed it, so I sent a few emails of my own to try and figure out what had happened. Turns out, there was an issue with the invoice that the folks at the district office hadn't gotten to yet because, of course, they're understaffed, too. Thankfully, it wasn't difficult to resolve.

More difficult to resolve: our shortage of paras and special education case managers. That's way above my pay grade, but Ms. E came to ask some questions about state laws relating to class sizes, numbers of students with IEPs per class, that kind of thing, and we got to talking about it. She's understandably stressed about how hard it is to do her job right now.

Mine as a regular ed. teacher in the only fully-staffed department in the building is a million times easier. I go in my room, I do my thing. Heck, I'm even getting the timing down in the half block classes now. My Global Studies lesson (about life in the coldest permanently inhabited village on earth, since we're talking about how the environment impacts other aspects of culture) was pretty close to perfect (and my APGOV Students were just working on projects, so that was easy). Woot.

But, yeah, stress levels elsewhere in the building are high.

That was clear at today's faculty meeting when a rather... spirited... debate broke out about some of the new rules the admins asked us to impose this year to address tardiness and truancy (two major post-pandemic issues, and not just at my school, I know). Does it suck to restrict kids' freedom of movement? For sure. But is the school having fewer discipline and safety issues? Significantly so. No one was arguing that the outcome is bad, just that there might be less restrictive ways of a achieving it. The Principal and The Deans indicated that they're open to having those conversations, but they want to keep doing things as we're doing them for at least a quarter- enough time to gather some good data- so someone remind me of this entry in eight weeks, I guess.

[0fflimits]

ms paint kinito doodles before i try to sleep, im going insane AUGHHHHHGHGHGHHH

[beebfreeb]

The amount of drawings I've made that haven't seen the light of day because they are simply um. Um.

[galatz]

dear brother

[forgetful-river]

MS Paint doodles of Dam :)

[warakami-vaporwave]

Paint IKB XP

[magic-crazy-as-this]

All I'm saying is that it's hard to believe that Dick Grayson is on a high school football team when he's an ultra-strong, super-acrobatic, extremely shameless little ball of sunshine that lives to show off.

[grimlyandgnarly-doodles]

epic eye swap what the facck????

[vaporwave]

[187days]

Day One Hundred Eighty-Two

CUE THE MUSIC OF TRIUMPH.

I have this one student who has been really difficult to reach because life has been so unkind to him for so long. We managed to get through quarter three with a lot of help from Ms. A and Mrs. R, who had developed a good relationship with him during first semester, but then things fell apart. He made a lot of really bad choices, ended up being suspended multiple times, and academically just... gave up. 

But that all changed two weeks ago. He started making up all of his math work, and, since he was willing to do that with Ms. A, the rest of his teachers all agreed to let him check in during our class times and then go do that. Then he started making up his English work with Mrs. R, which gave me an in to say, “Oh, you read such and such for her class? Let’s see if we can use that for my class, too” (Like an article they read and discussed about children in Ukraine became the basis for a current events write up). He’d thought my class would be the one that would be impossible to recover because it’s never been his favorite, and he’s had a hard time asking me for help, but once he saw it was possible? He was on fire. By the end of the day, he was on track to pass. If he can just hang on for two more, he’ll do it. 

We went down to tell his Ms. E, who’s been an absolute saint and miracle worker as his case manager, and she burst into tears and hugged me in the hall. It made her day, it made mine, it made the student’s. I’m so proud of him for turning things around, and so glad I work with a staff that meets kids where they are and helps them turn things around. 

It feels awesome.

Know what else feels awesome? Reading all the multigenre projects that were turned in today, giving them awesome grades and comments, and just being so proud of everything my students accomplished. I’m going to tell them all that tomorrow, too, and celebrate their successes. As for those who aren’t quite there yet, I emailed their parents and hope to see a turnaround before the weekend. Fingers crossed! I want everyone to finish strong!

[apple8ees]

local men in pretty outfits artist discovers that through the power of art, you can also draw WOMEN dressing up however the hell (subsequent death by lesbianism)

character is alinua from @comicaurora

[kev-smell-my-fart]

happy leap year chat, I dunno how the fuck im still alive and still going at it

[curestardust]

“Wait Outside the Church with Ms. Moissan” Reverse: 1999 | ‘One Moment of Aria’ Garment Collection Ms. Moissan Short

[jerrsterrr]

sleepy coach

RS au by @silliemop

as always comic idea below :3

full doodle made on magma lols :3

[mosslingg]

ms paint wall-e wip :3

Please consider supporting me on kofi!! i will be posting the finished piece there!

[yilingpapi]