exhausted

I haven't posted this week and here it is Friday again. With my three jobs at work, life is getting to be hectic. I have not worked this hard in a long time. I am a full time teacher of high school science, which is fun, but takes a lot of prep time. There are labs to set up and since I am always in the front of the rest of the teachers (each time I try to get behind everyone, they all slow down) I am the one to set everything up. I am slowly learning that if I don't set up for everyone, they will take my lab set ups because I don't get there before everyone else does in the morning and so I have to set it up again. I might as well just set up enough for everyone the first time around so I have what I need when I walk in every day. It just takes time. Complaining about it has done no good so far. People just look at me and say, well, we thought you set it up for us, or we needed it and it was there, so we took it. Getting frustrated and telling the principal does no good because everything things we should work together, which means everyone thinks I should do all the work anyways and not complain about it. Once you accept your role in life, you are much happier. But it has taken me a long time to get to this point. I still complain a lot and still forget a lot. Just this week, I set up a lab for myself and then came in and it was taken from me. I don't know why I was surprised, but I was and that threw my day off. So, the next lab, I set up for everyone else too.

Then, there is the BTSA, beginning teacher support program (what's the A for?--assistance?). We had a meeting this week that went until 6:30 and was 30 minutes from home. We could have easily met at our school so we didn't have to drive so far because all we did was talk about what we need to get done, but no, we had to all get together far away. At least they fed us good food. That's always nice.

And then there is the peer tutoring program. That is taking the most out of me. It is every day after school. It is like teaching another class and only getting 3% extra money for it instead of 20%. There is a lot of coordination between the tutors and students needing help. I can't make it today, I need extra help, Why isn't my tutor here? Then, if someone doesn't show up, I have to help the kid with subjects I haven't taken in years! I mean, who paid attention to History in high school? Sorry history teachers, but that stuff was boring to me! Then of course, there are the parents, who care more about this than the students do. The kid shows up for 10 minutes and says they are done and then the parent asks why the kid's grade isn't going up. I'm not sure I want to do this again next year. Things are going much more smoothly than they were at the beginning of the year and there are some really great kids in the program, so I'm sure I'm just ready for vacation, but I sure could use a day off. Oh wait, that is tomorrow :)