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Current mood:  busy Category: Life
It is a Thursday two weeks ago.
NUT had an exhausting and trying day with the 4th graders. Just as she was considering becoming a 4th grade teacher, the little ones turned on her. The excitement level for Halloween had already kicked in. This was not a good situation at all! Worse yet, they got all the grown up 5th graders pulled into it. How dare they gang up on her like this! Halloween wasn’t even within shouting distance yet……
In the middle of a math lesson a rambunctious little boy raised his hand. NUT naturally thought it was regarding the lesson so called on the young man. After all, NUT prided herself on making her lessons as fascinating as can be.
I’m going to be a Devil for Halloween.
NUT looks at the child incredulous. What the freak does this have to do with long division? NUT is also thinking if he is busy considering his possible array of costumes he most likely was not paying a bit of attention to her glorious math lesson. However, she had to give Mom Kudos for type casting her son…………..
Ahhhhhhhhh, try to concentrate on the screen. Long division is going to be on the Benchmark Test coming up.
NUT understands he will do no such thing and now all the students would be thinking about Halloween for the remainder of the lesson. In fact, the rest of the day would be a constant battle. NUT glanced sadly at the calendar and realized she had her work cut out for her the next two weeks. She didn’t understand this about 4th graders and it certainly hadn’t been on the contract. She would be re-thinking the grade level change request. These 4th graders were a completely different animal than her usual 5th graders.
It also made for a miserable afternoon sitting in a Torture Chamber ahead….. She was too damned drained to deal with the minutia about to occur. NUT couldn’t remember what they were going to be conversing about. Principal Nut had figured out a long time back not to hand out the agendas until AT THE MEETING. No sense giving the Type A Bitches extra time to plan an argument.
NUT rethought the stack of papers she had saved to correct during the Torture Chamber. They were looking sadly on the corner of her desk. NUT’s patience was gone and along with that, her brain seemed to be fried. NUT kindly told the papers she was reconsidering their company.
NUT looked at her laptop and made an instant decision; she would play a game while listening to the gobbledygook today. She needed a break and could certainly double or triple task. Yep, that was the deal today! Play and listen at the same time. Her Solitaire game could use some improving, after all.
NUT arrives to the meeting a few minutes early to get the only padded seat in the library. Since everyone was now aware of NUT’s Fibromyalgia they would most likely save it for her, but NUT believed in being safe and sure. Having a cushion to sit on made an incredible difference to her pain level when sitting down for any length of time.
Just as NUT was settled down the usual characters arrived; already talking a mile a minute. Principal Nut had four papers to hand out and they were spread out on the front table. NUT rolled her eyes because that would surely add 5 minutes to the torture chamber. As each paper is taken one person is inquiring to the other, “Gee, what do you think this is about?” NUT is thinking to shut the F up so we can find out already. Grab each paper and sit down already!!! People, this is not brain surgery.
After everyone is finally seated the principal starts up.
The first agenda item is the counselor had been cut from the school because of the budget. The discussion starts to fly around the room in outrage. The Queen Type A Bitch wants another copy of the district budget to see for herself. She convinces Type A Two they would go over to the district office the next day after school. They were both sure they could find more money. (They didn’t)
NUT takes the information in and thinks the superintendent made a brilliant decision. NUT never recommended kids to the school counselor because after a few conversations with the old lady, NUT determined she was indeed off her rocker. One has to be VERY careful with picking a counselor…..most all of them started out crazy and now want to help people feel normal like they do at that moment of their life.
Next on the agenda is one of the three schools in the district has lodged a complaint they think upper grades have more yard duty time. NUT thought about this for a second. She was always in the mood for less yard duty but it seemed pretty darn fair to her. Half hour discussion on yard duty and the result is one minute less each day at the end of the day duty. STUPID. After school we aren’t “off” until all the kids had been picked up. We are responsible for the safety of the children until they leave campus. Was someone planning on contacting all the parents who were already late picking up their kids each day? The whole thing made not a bit of sense. OK kids, fend for yourself, my last minute is up.
A few more agenda items were discussed and then came NUT’S favorite item……….MORE.
MORE was known to take a solid hour in just itself. Disposable diapers were one of the extreme famous MORE conversations. This MORE would leave NUT shaken and upset.
A very shy and drop dead gorgeous kindergarten teacher raised her hand. She only worked part time but somehow lucked out having the auspicious day the torture chambers were held. Obviously she was young and naïve.
DDG had flowing long blond hair, was thin with big violet eyes. NUT thought she looked better the previous year when she actually had a stunning figure. This year she almost had a hollow quality and looked hungry. NUT hoped she hadn’t developed an eating disorder. All that considered, this young woman rarely said a thing during a torture Chamber. NUT wasn’t really sure what her voice sounded like. Our school was built on purpose so the Kindergarten World was set apart from the rest of the trouble-makers. Seeing her hand up was very unusual.
Ummmmm, I was just told that a boy in my class had H1N1 last week. Why wasn’t I told as soon as it happened and why haven’t the parents in my class been told?
Silence.
All heads turned first in unison to the Kindergarten Teacher and then spun to Principal Nut.
We had a H1N1 case and no one had said a word to the staff, let alone the parents? Swine Flu had already made its appearance at the Children Factory? Even the Queen Type A Bitch didn’t know this?
Principal Nut started on and on about the new rules for Swine Flu. Evidently these new rules came from above and went all the way to the disease control joint in the nation. The people in charge have informed the schools NOT to notify parents each time there is a case of H1N1 so as not to create a panic. Evidently this included the teachers who worked with the kids every single day in the trenches. Since I first wrote this, it is obviously wrong information. Not only are parents informed in other places, they have been closing schools.)
As you can imagine, NUT wasn’t the only one who was upset with this new information and directives. Maybe she had already been exposed to the H1N1 and not been told? This was really upsetting. Shouldn’t the teacher know when her students had this new sickness? What about the parents in the school? Don’t they have the right to know?
It went back and forth for another 45 minutes. The shy kindergarten teacher went out in tears. She felt her kindergarten parents needed to be told and wouldn‘t back down. It was like she was more upset about the parent part than herself being exposed. NUT really felt for her.
NUT had long ago shut the laptop and voiced her opinion. She felt it was her right to be told. It was incredulous to her this was even an issue. In fact, NUT was pissed. She was taking as many precautions as she could, but it would still be nice to know what was going on in her own classroom. Weren’t teachers told when a child came down with chicken pox?
Principal Nut simply wasn’t listening to any of it. What she was telling her teachers came from the superintendent. There simply would not be any announcement about the H1N1/Swine Flu situation. Parents would remain clueless and teachers could just shut up about the whole thing.
We have been told to tell you to assume you have one to two children in your class at anytime with the Swine Flu. The reason for this is you probably do or soon will. It would be redundant to tell you of each case. Telling you officially would not make a bit of difference.
NUT ponders this. It wouldn’t make any difference?
NUT stewed all night. Mr. Nut was every bit as mad and worried as NUT was. It was a night not much sleeping took place in the Nut House. Both felt teachers should be notified if there was a case of Swine Flu in his/her classroom.
The following morning NUT arrived early at the Children Factory. Queen Secretary was just arriving, too. She often arrived way before her normal paid hours just to catch up on things. The woman was a saint in NUT’s book.
NUT informs Queen Secretary about the Torture Chamber conversation and how upset everyone had been. Ends up Queen Secretary didn’t agree with the mandates either. She was immediately concerned she knew information the teachers in the trenches didn’t even know.
Have I had a child in my classroom with Swine Flu yet? Joe Blow was out for a week. Is that what he had?
No, you haven’t had any cases in your class. I WILL tell you if you do, though. I think you should know.
After NUT profusely thanks Queen Secretary. The woman was amazing and such a good friend.
Almost as an afterthought NUT inquires how many cases of Swine Flu had actually been at the school so far.
Ten.
TEN???? OMG. And no one knew about this; teachers, custodians, aides, let alone the parents of kids at the school?
Unbelievable.
NUT proceeded to tell every teacher she could find that new information.
And I wrote this blog. Just because you might not have heard about cases of H1N1 at your child’s school doesn’t necessarily mean there hasn’t been.
Nutsville Class Assignment:
What do you make of this? Do you agree with me that the teacher should know? What about all the parents in the school? Do you want to be informed if your child is in a classroom where Swine Flu has been diagnosed?
Post Note:
There is a big change in our local media, too. Whereas last spring each local case was reported, no such thing is going on now. The newspaper touches on Swine Flu and it popping up but never mentions the schools involved. Certainly there is no total given out. I guess the government is telling the powers that be not to report each case so as not to start a mad flee and panic?
NUT
12:08 PM
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