A Test To My Patience

And this time I'm not talking about my empty uterus.

My teaching partner is on maternity leave (FYI: In Canada you get a year of paid mat leave, you only get 60% of your salary, but hey, it's better than a kick in the pants!) and she will be returning in January. The teacher that they hired is fresh out of teachers' college and although she seems sweet, she's already driving me crazy!

It's not the greatest time to be a new teacher. Hardly anyone is hiring full time positions and it's hard to get sub work. The fact that this girl got a contract for four months is a pretty amazing thing.

Which brings me to why I'm so frustrated:

1) She missed the staff meeting on the very first day of school. The principal mentioned that we were having a meeting at 8:15am to get any last minute concerns out of the way and he also wanted to have a short liturgy. I was at school at 7:30am on the first day of school (our bell rings at 8:45am) to make sure everything was ready (which it already was, but I'm more than a bit OCD). Who misses a staff meeting on the first day of their very first job??? Her excuse was that she forgot which is also proof that she doesn't pay attention.

2) We decided that we were going to do our lesson plans in the morning. I can barely spell my own name at the end of the day and I am definitely a morning person. She asked me what time I usually arrive at school and I told her between 7:40 and 7:45am. I assumed (I know that I shouldn't have, but I did) that she wanted to know so she would show up at the same time. She showed up at 8:15 one morning and 8:10 the next. What is up with that????

I plan to tell her that I want to plan a week at a time so that we don't have to worry about meeting every day -- it also lessens the stress because you know where you have to end up by Friday. I honestly thought that she would've learned something about lesson planning in school, but obviously I was wrong.

3) She didn't understand the math lesson that we taught today. It was the first lesson in our patterning unit (i.e. one orange block, two white blocks, one orange block, two orange blocks, etc). The kids had to transfer the pattern on a grid. That was it. We're teaching the second grade, not university calculus. I was a bit shocked since the teacher manual had the lesson laid out step by step. She also brought the book home to review the lesson. I may have to send in a kid from my class to help her teach!

I recognize that my patience level is not at it's highest. I've been TTC for over five years, I'm sick of waiting for anything. I was also hoping that I would have a PARTNER, not another student. I think that she realized that I was annoyed today, but I don't know if that knowledge is going to change her behaviour. The thing is that I hate confrontation. I told Mr. JB that I would just do all of the planning, but he reminded me that she is getting paid to do her job (and pretty well, I might add) so she needs to contribute.


It's obvious to me that she just doesn't understand how hard a teacher's job actually is. I remember when I started teaching that I would get to school early and not leave until 5 or 6pm! I did that for the first two years and when I was off of probation I relaxed, a bit. Mr. JB is having similar issues with new teachers on his staff. He calls it a sense of entitlement. I have job security and I still want to impress my boss!

I know that I need to be more understanding. Perhaps no one told her what is to be expected of her? Perhaps she isn't a morning person? Perhaps she is just clueless?

In cycle news: I started taking E.stace last night. My Napro doc wants me to take it from Peak +3 to +10. I've already noticed that my CM has all dried up. I almost never use the green stickers on my chart and I'm so shocked that I get to today! The only side effect I felt this morning was a dull headache that went away after I had some breakfast and green tea.

The H.ydrocort is still working its magic. I did fall asleep on the couch for about an hour last night, but I functioned like a normal human being all day yesterday. I have to see my naturopath so I can discuss my normal thyroid, iron and Vitamin D levels, but that's going to have to wait until life settles down.

I can't believe that it's only been three days. It already feels like I've never been gone!