What a Woeful, Worthless, Waste of a Day

It’s days like these that kick me in the pants. The classroom was trashed twice, I got nothing but surliness from the students, couldn't teach a damn thing all day, extra paperwork from the administration and parent teacher conferences in the evening. Most first year teachers have serious thoughts of quitting the profession during their trial by fire period, and today is one of those days for me. All the good wishes, the bright ideas, the understanding I (think I) have with students fails me sometimes, and that frustration combined with the disconnect that I sense the higher-ups have concerning what the students can do, and what they want the teachers to somehow produce from the kids. (You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, and you can’t expect someone with a 2nd grade reading level to pass a regents.)

What can I say? Some days are really inspiringf or me as a teacher AND as a person, and even though I can think back to October when almost every day sucked (and was dangerous) it’s still wearying to trudge through the days where every single aspect of teaching goes wrong, you can’t educate worth a damn and the only saving grace is that it’s nearly the weekend and sixty-some days till Summer. There's no real fear of me quitting, and I’m sure after indulging in a night of sulking and a hot bath I’ll be set to face the day tomorrow…But I can’t help but think teaching is really thankless work sometimes.

And no, no parents showed up for parent teacher conferences either. But I didn’t really have my hopes up anyway.