Confusion

All this week I was under the impression that my team-teacher was going to be out Thursday and Friday. Had my lesson plans all set up, with the expectation that we would be adding 1/3 of his students and 1/3 of a period to the other classes. Yesterday I found out he will be out Friday and Monday, so I shifted things back a day.

Now rumor is there WILL be a sub for him, which means normal classes and normal class lengths. No problem, right? Well the video I planned to show is about an hour, and our class periods are 50 minutes (really closer to 45 with transitions, etc.). I can cope...and tried out some Escher artwork on the kids today, and many were pretty excited. This could be a really fun thing, even with many complaining that they can't draw. Hell, nobody can draw like Escher.

The good news of all this is my plans take me through Monday now. Tues/Wed/Thurs remain, since Friday is "May Day" which is a glorified field day. Administration has stepped up and is coming down harder on students who act the jerk.

Now for the annual pet peeve. This week is dubbed "Teacher Appreciation Week" which means we can feel bad that we are not appreciated. In past years there have been daily treats, some from the administration, others from the Parent/Teacher Organization. They just did something for us during TCAP (and since parents didn't donate, they asked us to pay for a lunch honoring teachers), so no dice now. The media makes a huge hairy deal out of every "made up" holiday like Secretary's Day, Bosses Day, etc. Do I hear anything about Teacher Appreciation Day? no. How about just "Don't be an ass to your teacher" day? Don't Give Your Teacher a Hard Time Day? Not going to happen.