Day -9

Went in to school today for a planning meeting, and found out why I was invited. Apparently I'm a senior Language Arts teacher now, because the City fired all the un-certified teachers (regardless of how good or professional some of them were) and others retired or transferred.

The Big Cheese even got the boot, which is in many ways a good thing because she was incompetent, lying, manipulative, deceitful, and completely insane. But at least the kids feared her, and they don't fear anyone else in the building, in particular the Assistant Principal who will be running the show in an acting capacity. So the behavioral climate in the building will likely deteriorate this year to new depths of destruction and depravity.

But I found out I have a new room on the 2nd floor instead of the 3rd. This pleases me no end because I won't have so many steps to lug my junk up in a couple weeks, and the 2nd floor is a peaceful oasis compared to the third, which is a dark, scary place. I also heard tell that I will have a Smartboard this year-but won't believe it until I am plugging it in. Smartboards have a way of disappearing from rooms...

AND I'm supposed to be teaching all sixth graders this year, which is GREAT because they'll be new to middle school and I can mold them to my will much more readily than 7th or 8th graders who are already off the chain. But again this could change at any time, given they've still yet to hire a couple dozen faculty for this fall, including several language arts teachers. I'd love to avoid teaching the incoming 8th and 7th graders because those kids are bananas.

So: right now I'm cautiously optimistic, but I'm prepared for everything to turn out the opposite of what I've been told. That's just how the City schools are.