I had forgotten how much whispering, running around, sudden meetings in spare offices and the last minute emotions that go into another announcement of teacher transfers. Today I sat back and took it all in. With nothing invested it is easier to focus on how people behave and how they handle the situation. I love watching people – if I could make money doing it I would.
The upcoming spring term is my lame duck term – I’ll be teaching classes for the term but then I’ll be gone forever and the students will have to get used to a new teacher during the fall term. This made it a little less interesting to see who I would be teaching with next.
The teachers filed up to the meeting room at ten o’clock, and the principal read off a short list of teachers that will be leaving and teachers that will be coming to replace them.
Overall, there weren’t really any main players making changes. I mentioned the two yesterday, and there wasn’t anybody else that really gets written about in this journal. We lost three English teachers, but gained one. They added a school nurse, so now we have three, and the part time teacher lineup changed quite a bit. Other than that, not much exciting happened. The history teacher will still be around to torment me next term, but with the light at the end of the tunnel, I think I can persevere.
The purpose of the rest of the day is for the teachers to meet and discuss the changes. They met as different groups – first they met by school year, then by groups, and then finally by subject. I had to stick around for the English meeting in the late afternoon, which meant I sat around the empty staffroom most of the day.
To compensate for all the free time I walked over to the bank to get some money, and I stopped in at Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch. It’s not my favorite place to eat, but I thought I’d just grab a chicken sandwich and run. It turned out that an ex-student of mine was working there, and she made my sandwich and then came out to say hello. Her coworkers were impressed that she knew me and we chatted for a little while.
Since the history teacher gave me a present the other day, he intends to cash in on the goodwill that he supposedly bought. In other words, he wants value for his money. I spent a lot of time dodging him today and yesterday, and I hope that this isn’t a trend that continues. Yikes.
As for the English meeting, it was a strange one. This meeting is where people traditionally take new roles and responsibilities for the new year, and since nobody wants to take on new work, the moderator would ask a question, followed by about 1-2 minutes of total silence as people stared at their paperwork hoping that the moderator would stop asking questions. This went on for 30 minutes. It would be painful to watch if you didn’t like watching people.
As I was coming out of the bathroom the principal took me aside and told me that one of the new English teachers is coming from New York – her husband had been working there at a bank. He said that her English is supposed to be top notch, and he spent almost a half hour with me talking about how he wants to improve the English level of his staff. It was fun to talk to him, but I’m a little frustrated that I can’t add more to the discussion. He doesn’t seem to mind though, and he expects me to sit and listen anyway since he is older than me and that is my role – nod and agree with everything.
Lastly, before I left for the day the vice principal pulled me aside and told me that he is being promoted to principal of a special public high school for the disabled and blind. When I get back from my vacation he will be gone. I was sad to hear that he will be gone, but I was glad to hear about his promotion. It was still top secret when I left – he said I was the third person to know about it. I’ll miss having him to chat with around the staffroom. I wonder if the next guy will be as relaxed.
Now I’m back home with some pork steaks marinating in the fridge. Kuniko should be home pretty soon, and then we can maybe kick back and relax for a little while. She’s got to work tomorrow, so I’ll be on the hook for laundry and cleanup duties. I anticipate that the biggest decision I’ll make tomorrow is what music to listen to while I’m working around the house.
