surprise, another staff meeting

So today was great. My ESL classes went well, and there's nothing more rewarding then explaining something to 4th graders and seeing lights go off in their heads in recognition. I gave them their monthly test today, and I know a couple probably failed...but I also know that they at least tried. That felt good.

In my English class, I was teaching comparative adjectives, and I used the students as examples. I think they really like it when I do this. I try to make it light hearted and fun, and it seems to go over well. This might sound strange, but I realy feel like I have a connection with that class. Maybe it's because I see them every day, because I know I don't feel the same way about my history classes. But I just really, really enjoy teaching grammar to the kids and seeing some of them really striving for excellence. Two boys and one girl in particular really make that class worthwhile. When the girl turned in her journal-writing assignement on Friday, she told me that she had left room so that I could make corrections. I felt guilty making spelling or gramatical corrections on something that I didn't consider a serious piece of writing, so I didn't correct anyone else's. I found out later this evening from her homeroom teacher that this same girl who I adore wrote in her contact book (notebook? am I stupid? why don't i know what a contact book is?), "I love my English teacher. She is so young and beautiful and funny." Well, as if I didn't already love this student...my goodness. I almost got teary eyed when the class teacher told me that. I really hope they don't switch classes on me during the semester because I already am so attached to them that by the end of the semester, I think I'll be heartbroken if I'm not able to continue teaching them.

So...things were awesome until the staff meeting in the primary school building today, just for the primary school teachers. Apparently they wanted us to write notes about the homework/behavior of ALL OF OUR STUDENTS and then talk to each class teacher about each of the students. Right. With no notice, we were supposed to divide our students up by which homeroom they are in, write them down in that organized way, and then write comments about each of them. That's about 70 students each. Needless to say, none of us were very pleased about it, and I was there until after 6pm tonight talking to class teachers. I didn't finish writing down everything, but the class teachers themselves were writing down what I said, so I think the whole process was really pointless. Apparently we're supposed to turn in some cover sheet to the supply office. I wasn't even given sheets for all of my classes. It was just so ridiculous. Couldn't they have told us this ahead of time so we could have prepared the organized lists of student names? Or at least told us what the meeting was going to be about ahead of time? It just didn't make sense, so it was infuriating.

Definitely calling it an early night. I am so exhausted.