Ward C

Someone should quarantine my school, but that won't happen. All the teachers are getting sick one by one, and it is kind of like our own little version of "And Then There Were None." I feel okay, I think, but if I was getting sick it would take me a while to figure it out BECAUSE my school is literally working me to the bone. I am so tired I can barely keep my eyes open. The only time I am distracted from how tired I am is when I get an adrenaline kick from having way more tasks than I could ever accomplish at one time.

The problem is that no one who is sick wants to call in because they would have to write sub plans and reschedule all of their parent teacher conferences. So, there are a bunch of zombie like teacher creatures roaming the halls and infecting the rest of us. We're easy targets too because we are working so many hours. We have to teach a full school week and hold 24-30 parent conferences.

On the bright side, I only have to survive one more day without catching the bug. On the not-so-bright side, I still have six parent teacher conferences left due to people not showing up and cancelling. I have heard the excuse that people are tired and work a lot so many times this week. I really want to answer verbatim in these words: "I am so sorry that you have to work! I totally understand that you have more important things to do than show up for our appointment about your child or even call to tell me that your not going to show up. It's my pleasure to teach your child from 7:45am to 2:45pm and then stay at school until 7pm to meet with someone who doesn't bother to call me and say that they're not coming."

I am grouchy because this week feels unending and my workload feels unending. It is profoundly discouraging to work the number of hours I worked this week and still feel under prepared for the teaching work itself. I will say that most of my parents were wonderful and showed up. It is not their fault anymore than it is my fault that the district makes this terrible schedule.