it's no big deal

My AP has taken to answering any concern I bring to her with, "It's really no big deal." It's amazing how hearing that sentence after these last few weeks has actually become quite a big deal, to me anyway. It's not even that I particularly care about the insanity that is my daily life right now, but I wonder if there is any phrase that could make me feel more unprofessional when bringing up a legal concern regarding a student's services that could potentially lead to thousands of dollars cost to the school, lawsuits, etc. than "It's no big deal." Cause actually, honey, it is. I wouldn't care if she would just admit it... or even don't, just don't try to write it off. If it's such a small deal, you do it. You're a district certified special ed teacher who refused to even teach in a middle school, and certainly never had to go into a brand-new model with no training, resources, support, or other trained special ed teachers around you, then got told you were being pulled out at the end of February in a manner so unprofessional even your principal admitted it, then told you were only being kept in because your classroom was the only place to send a kid who was being laterally transferred because he assaulted both his other teachers- but don't worry, he's fine unless he doesn't take one of his four heavy-dose anti-psychotic drugs every day on time. Oh, just kidding! He's there for a week, but he has to be in a small class environment, so he's gone to the (now split 7th/6th grade self-contained) 7th grade self-contained (lucky N! more of that karma...), but now your partner teacher is out sick (for the third week in a row) and we know your class would rapidly disintegrate into chaos if you weren't there, so... you're staying with your students. Unless she comes back, maybe. We don't think we're going to tell you, actually. It's funnier that way. Except that you also now have a split caseload, so you have just as many kids on your caseload as everyone else but teach twice as many, and all the new kids are in the seventh and eighth grades in all different classrooms. It's no big deal, really... such a little deal that the roster chair won't even touch it, so you have to create your own schedule in which you service all of these children daily, one to two periods a day, even though they're all in different classes and you're not allowed to interfere with their math or reading classes or your part-time kids' math or reading classes. Don't get too hung up on the schedule, though- we're probably going to add more kids by the day as they transfer in! Oh one last thing- you have to go get the kids every day, they can't just come to you, because we're still on indefinite lockdown. It should only be three or four (or six) trips round the building daily, right? Plenty of time for engaging and rigorous content instruction. What do you teach them? Math and reading, of course. Do you do curriculum or IEP goals, you ask? You teach reading and math! What don't you understand? What, you think you're going to get some kind of information about your job description? (Maniacal laughter...) Get me that schedule by the end of the week... It's no big deal. Oh, and Happy Standardized Test Week! Oh, I'm sorry. Happy Standardized Test Prep Week! Oh, by the way- next week be ready to give the test to all of your sixth, seventh, and eighth grade special and general ed students simultaneusly while still accomodating for short breaks, extended time, and other IEP accomodations like small group testing (HAHAHA), but not for your general ed students. You clearly should be keeping them all engaged and positive- yet totally silent and in their seats- throughout a 3 hour test during which they can't even go to the bathroom. That's why we're practicing this week and making the kids hate the whole thing early! Remember that any inconsistencies or problems with the test could result in potential lawsuits in which everyone will blame YOU. I mean really, it's no big deal.

I hear rumors that there are folks who read this blog to feel better about their own lives. Go ahead. Please do. I'm glad my venting does something positive for someone.

So update on the School District of Denial... suddenly everyone has realized that city schools are actually horrible places to work and incredibly violent and dangerous. So our CEO (what, you thought this was a public school system and not a corporation? HAHAHA) has valiantly decided that any students who even threaten a teacher will be suspended for ten days and immediately processed for expulsion. This, to me, is hilarious beyond words. (The hahas don't even cut it) Ten days is the maximum any students are supposed to be suspended for the entire school year. If we tomorrow suspended everyone in my school who threatened a teacher, tomorrow, we would automatically be out of compliance with that particular law because in general kids who threaten teachers aren't so much bright-and-chipper go-lucky kids to begin with, and by March they've already been suspended at least once for prior threats/fights/random acts of violence. Not to mention the number of them that are special ed, since such a huge percentage of special ed kids get placed because of inital behavior problems rather than evidence of an actual learning disability... and to suspend special ed kids (and expel them) there's like four more layers of bureaucracy to get through. But hey, no big deal!

Maybe I've been around these kids too long, but this whole situation kind of makes me want to punch someone in the face. There's been a bunch of articles about it in the paper, but I'm too tired to link them. Maybe tomorrow...