[LM_NET] Vent (long, sorry)

[Marci Mathers <mediamarci@HOTMAIL.COM>]

Please allow me to cry on your collective shoulders. I have spent this summer 
working on an inventory project for my district. It literally started the day after 
school was out and I will hopefully finish it today. Teachers have to report on 
Tuesday, so I am cutting it close. I have not had more than 2 days off in a row all 
summer. I even worked Memorial Day and 4th of July. But I was happy to have summer 
work to help with the bills.
 
I knew this was going to be an intense project so last May, I forced myself to sit 
down and write lesson plans. I had (emphasis on had) Kids Voting lesson plans all 
the way through the November election. I wrote up policies and procedures, designed 
posters, and even bought colored copy paper and color-corodinted folders so each 
teacher could get a copy of what I was doing. I sent these plans along with a 
proposed schedule to my principal weeks ago. Nothing.
 
Thursday she called me to tell me about a great idea "they" had. Seems she had a 
meeting with the Middle School teachers and "they" decided to break the Middle 
School kids into small reading groups and teach content with novels. Great idea, I 
have been trying to get someone to do that for 2 years. 
 
But this is one week before school starts, how are we going to get the books? What 
books are we going to teach? We should ask the high school what they are teaching 
so we don't duplicate what 9th grade is doing. Shouldn't we pick Reading Counts! 
books, the list goes on.
 
The principal and assistant principal are supposedly going to have groups. Yeah, 
like that's going to work. The computer teacher is going to have a group. She will 
love that. And, by the way, my principal asked, "What book do you want to teach?" I 
was stunned.
 
I am on a fixed schedule with 40 classes a week, I have no assistant, I am the text 
book and curriculum coordintor for the school, I am the Kids Voting Coordinator, 
Reading Counts and DIBELS administrator. NOW you're going to rearrange my schedule 
to the point where I have to rewrite all my lesson plans AND plan for a new class 
all one week before school starts. Thanks.
 
Silly me, I read for pleasure this summer.
 
Thanks for listening.Marci Mathers, MLIS Media Specialist Mountain Vista K-8 School 
Coolidge, AZ mediamarci@hotmail.com
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