...and its only Tuesday!

Oh, dear Lord.  Its only Tuesday and I am feeling the need to up my dosage of happy pills.  As I've shared before, I co-teach with an awesome math teacher and LOVE it.  This week, however, she got called for jury duty and was out yesterday and today.  Normally this would not be a problem because there would be a substitute, and an extra adult in the room is a good thing.  This year, however, the budget crisis has not only taken away 8 contract days (@ $2,000 off my yearly pay!) but it has also left us without substitute teachers.  Yippee.

In an ordinary classroom, this wouldn't be a big deal.  The second teacher could totally handle it.  In a collaborative setting, however, its kind of a huge deal.  We teach kids who are used to being in MUCH smaller resource classrooms (@8-10 per class) but who are now in LARGE classes (@ 40 per class) with two teachers.  When the two teachers are present, it works just fine and everyone gets what they need.  Cool.  When one teacher is absent, however, and there is no second adult to step in and help, its chaos.  The students need help, there is only ONE teacher trying to give all 40 kids some kind of individual help with the math, and ohmygoodnesswhereisthePROZAC?????

So yeah, I am ready for Kelly to COME BACK.  I am ready to call the courthouse and lie like a dog about her so they will send her back to work. 

Next week things will change because the county board of education finally noticed our large class sizes and decided 38-40 kids was probably not a great idea, so we are getting an extra teacher for our team.  WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!  This means we will have a nice reduction in class size, which will be so much better for everyone.  The poor school counselor now gets to basically rewrite everyone's schedules, but it will be worth it in the long run.  If I can make it just 3 more days, Monday will be SO much better.  Pray for me, y'all!