June is by far the worst month of the school year. The kids are checked out. The teachers are checked out. The Dean is tired and wishes he could check out. But yet, there are finals in 2 weeks. My favorite is the staff meeting in June.
Principals all over the state are trying to convince their staff to push kids to "finish strong". Push the kids. Expect the most from them. It's crunch time. Whatever.
It's survival mode. It seems like everything would just be easier if we took June out. Right? May would be the end and then July would come. The weather would be miserable so the kids would like to be in school still. Then it would be July, the weather would be nice and we would all be enjoying it free of the stress June brings.
What stress you say? Of course you do, corporate junky. You can also pee whenever you want. And if you don't want to be around people you have someplace to hide. The only place to hide at school is the staff bathroom, and since everyone pees on a schedule you have about 3 minutes....if you're lucky!
It's June...so all of the sudden parents and kids are concerned about their grades. IDK why they didn't worry about them any time between September-May, but they don't. Probably because the reality of Summer School is hitting the parental pocket books. These are my favorite moments: "Can I talk to you about my grade?" "Do you have some extra credit?" "Can I turn in my makeup work?" Parents ask these exact same questions. AND when they don't get the answer they want from the teacher, they ask the principal. At my school, we comply. SO....I'm writing extra projects for kids who screwed up last quarter because they were in a 10 person "melee" (in the words of my principal) after school. The real question is, why are we accommodating kids that are such an embarrassment to our school? I can't understand it?!! Whatever the case, I just gave him one of the projects he didn't do in the first place...it's June and I'm not writing a new one.
I wonder if I was on the verge of getting fired if I could get some extra credit to fix all the mistakes I'd made in the past and just wipe them away, you know like extra credit is supposed to do for all those zeros in my grade book? Maybe when I miss a day or a week because my family took a vacation (not on the scheduled 25 vacation days in the school year, but an extra one) they will give me the make up work I missed. 4 meetings, 13 class periods, and all the work and grading that goes with it. While I was out, power school went down, so I'll be needing to reenter everything I've done so far. It should all be completed by Friday. Ridiculous. Of course, the expectation would be that I'm still taking care of all that crap even though I'm off.
I'm thinking I may talk to the boss about the due date for grades. I'm just not going to be able to accommodate it. I'm pretty sure I'm going to need an extension until July. It shouldn't be a problem right? I'll just be turning in my "missing work" when it's convenient for me. That's what kids do.... They can wait that long for their report cards, right?
Of course, these suggestions are ridiculous. No parent or student would want to hear about them from me. I'd like to borrow a line from Hollywood, "I'm not listening!"
This battle is a stalemate. This week I am planning to call for a moment of peace, so we all can come out of our trenches for a quick song to celebrate the holiday (you know the best classroom management strategy ever, summer vacation). Then we are getting back in to wait out D-day. June 17th. There is 1 weekend that is separating us from that joyous day of freedom. Bring it.
From the trenches....out.
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