Irritated 13

Have you ever had one of those days where everything just irritated you? I had one of those weeks. Last week. 

I resisted taking out my foul mood on those around me. Barely. But rather than writing a full week's worth of posts on the things that irritated me, I'm doing a Thursday 13 to contain them here. 

1. Monday was the first day back after Thanksgiving break. So, of course the secretary who checks subs in was out, leaving the back up secretary who didn't know how to give us subs access to the online attendance. So, not only did we have to take roll the old-fashioned way (on paper), we gave the attendance clerk more work when she had to input all of our absences herself. 

2. The lesson plans for Monday stated that the assignment for the students was in Google Classroom. Okay then. But, first period informed me that there was no assignment for them. Then second period said that it was there, but it was the same assignment they had before the break which they had already completed. Grrrr.

3. Grocery shopping, something I like to do, was just torture. The store was packed. It annoys me normally, but I was already irritated by my day.

4. So, driving home, it was getting dark out. I turn on my headlights. At a stop, I look up at my reflection in the car ahead of me, and was it...? Yup. There was not a reflection of a headlight where there should have been. One of my headlights had burned out. 

5. On Tuesday, I covered an ELD class. That stands for English Language Development. These are students whose first language isn't English, and they're there to learn English. Second class of the day, a student informed me in broken English that she didn't speak English and needed to work with another student at a different table.

The teacher had been quite clear that the students weren't to move. But what really irritated me was the whole "I don't speak English" routine. In any other class, I would have been more understanding, but if she barely spoke English, she would have been in the beginning/newcomer ELD class, not this more intermediate/advanced one. This was the wrong class to try to play off that lie.

How irritated was I? Irritated enough to include her name in my note. I don't usually bother, but this time, it had to be done.

6. The first class that day had the same assignment. I was supposed to make sure they stayed on task, and for the most part they did. But two boys kept trying to sneak games on their computers. I could see their screens from where I was stationed, but I had to get up and go over to them before they'd switch back to their assignment. Unless I stood over them, they kept going back to their games. Grrrr.

7. On Wednesday I was at the continuation high school. Another teacher there said he was going to be out on Monday. He let me know when he put the assignment in the sub app. And...? Someone else snagged it before I could catch it. 

Then the exact same thing happened on Friday. Different class, different school, but someone snatched another job right out from under me.

8. So far, December doesn't look like a busy working month. So, I was really disappointed to miss out on those assignments. As I write this, all that's in the system is elementary gigs. Am I that desperate to work? I'm not sure. I shouldn't wish for people to get sick, but here we are.

9. It's been a while since one of the middle schools did video morning announcements. But, of course, they'd do this last Thursday. And I only found out about it when it was time for the announcements, which didn't give me enough time to set up the projector and computer so they could see these announcements. A heads-up would have been nice. 

10. Thursday. 8th grade English. They were doing a first read assignment on a poem. It was due at the end of the period as an "exit ticket" (meaning I collect it from them as they leave the room). I let them know all of this at the beginning of class and I reminded them of this as they were packing up.

At the door, as I'm holding out my hand to one boy he said, "I'm doing it for homework." Oh no. No, you're not. You had the whole period to do this. 

How irritated by this was I? Irritated enough to match all the assignments to the student roster so I could find his name and include it in my note. That's a lot of effort to find one name, but it was worth it. 

11. I'm not sure how to write this. Jaylah got on my last nerve. I had her in class twice last week. She was in the summer school class, too. She did no work in either class (the ELD class and her 8th grade English class). She didn't get in anyone's way. She wasn't rude. But it just irked me. (This one I did not write down. Her teachers could see what she didn't accomplish.) 

12. I snagged my sweater. This one was bought, so it wasn't my handiwork that was upset. And it tends to snag, so this wasn't the first time. But I got to work only to find the snag, and there was no time to do anything about it. 

13. It was a busy Thursday, so of course I was asked to cover an extra period. But the timing. They don't give us keys for those rooms, so I have to find someone to open the door for me. Because the class followed lunch, those with keys were supervising the students at lunch. Plus, I had to hit the restroom before I got there. Normally I'd call the office, but to get back to a school phone to make the call... It was just awkward.