Back to Work

School started three weeks ago and so far I have a delightful kindergarten class. With the exception of one child who can be, at times, oppositional, the students are cute, well behaved (well, for 5 and 6 year olds that is) and fairly bright. I always have several students who have that 'huh?' look when you are speaking, but not this year (so far). Unfortunately, the 4th kindergarten is about to be closed! Our numbers are down this year and with 14, 15, 10, 9 in our classes there are not enough students to sustain a fourth class. What a shame, since the 'new' teacher spend HOURS setting up her classroom, learning the ropes, bonding with her students, only to be told that she 1. move to third grade (which would bump out a teacher there) or volunteer to apply for a surplus transfer (which she chose to do simply because she lives quite far from our school). Ms. R. came to us this year to take the place of a teacher who was forced into retirement by cutbacks in the county. Ms. R. was an out of classroom teacher whose position was cut, putting her into the surplus area, which landed her at our school (an inner city school). I am so glad that I am not in her position. I have enough years with the school board to be considered safe from being surplussed, and I just look forward to 4 years from now when I can kiss it all goodbye and not have to wake up at 5:30 AM, do lesson plans, and deal with all the non-teaching BS that goes on daily.