So, today is Monday, right? Then why is it I'm as tired as if it were Sunday and I had worked 15 hours a day for seven days straight? I mean, I know I had a challenging day at work, but geez!

Speaking of work, if you ever get a chance to work with a bunch of juveniles with special disabilities, don't try to make Christmas cards with them. A big waste of time! Had I let them sit around and decorate pictures of their gang symbols and their gang nicknames, everything would be wonderful. I'm stupid, and I'm going to try another crafty project with them tomorrow, too. So wish me luck, please, I'm gonna need it!

Okay, I have a gripe, and what better place to air it than here. So, I get this email when I get to work today that says that I need to have special reviews for two of my students that are having problems in another teacher's, Ms. Smith's, class. I got it from my big boss, the head of special ed. A special review is an IEP meeting that you hold to review an IEP and make whatever changes need to be made. Now, mind you, this teacher has never once come to me about these so-called problems. She gives everyone a list every now and then that says how they are doing in her class. She had a "U" for Unsatisfactory for them. If anyone out there, teacher or not, can tell me what "unsatisfactory" performance means from class to class, and specifically in hers, please let me know. I have students that perform at an "unsatisfactory" level in my class, and I say that simply b/c I know they can do better. Is that what she thinks it is? So, needless to say, I didn't pay it much attention, b/c to be honest, that sounds like her problem and she needs to figure out how to run her class so that they perform at a "satisfactory" level for her. But, that's not how it goes...Nope, being their special ed teacher, it's, for some strange reason, as if I have no other work to do (might I add, ten times more than regular teachers, and enough that I don't have time to make lists telling other teachers if my students are performing "unsatisfactory" every week!), my responsibility to try to figure out how to make them mold to her teaching. I've come to accept this role as surrogate mother or something, and I have done my best to control students whom I can't control in my class while they're elsewhere. However, although she has had such problems as to label these boys "unsatisfactory", she has never once come to me to see if we can't figure out what's going on and how to fix the problem. Of course, happy Monday, when I get to work today, I see that she has made it a point to tell my boss. Now, our school has MANY problems that we can't get solved b/c of this thing called the "chain of command". We know that Judge Byars, the head of DJJ, would try to solve our problems if he was aware that they existed. However, b/c of the c-o-c, we can't go past our superintendent, Meda Cobb. She doesn't care about our problems, and certainly doesn't want the judge to know them. That would make her look bad. Ms. Smith is all up in anyone's butt that she thinks can help her be a perfect suck-up, so I would assume that she is aware of this policy. So when I received this message this morning, I was a little displeased, to say the least, to see that she did not follow the plan. What's more, I'm sure that if brought out into the open, she would simply say that she was giving my boss the head's up on how the special ed students are doing in her class. Well, that's nice and all, but she is not a special ed teacher, and thus has no reason whatsoever to be reporting progress to my boss. I'm really pissed about this. I asked a couple other teachers, even one of her pretty close friends, what they thought of this, and they thought it was pretty wrong, too. I thought it was funny that her friend said to me that she thought it was messed up that she has enough time to make these lists and keep track of such things, but not enough time to come to me and try to work out a solution to the problem. I wrote Ms. Smith a letter stating that we need to get together to try to work it out. We'll see how that goes. Another teacher pointed out that I should put it back in her court, since she has so much time to do such things, and have her keep a daily checklist (a long one!) of their behavior, so I can see exactly what is going on, and what needs to be worked on. I like that idea, and I think I will do it. I'll make sure to ask for lots of detailed comments. That really pisses me off. I hate work. I don't think I was made to work. Office politics and all the crap that comes with just trying to do your job suck.

I'm sorry to have wasted your time on my complaining, but I needed to get that out. I really hope you have a great day today, and I look forward to bringing you better news tomorrow!