bleh

At work, getting exactly nothing done. I had to deal with three distraught people pretty much as soon as I walked in this morning, and being so very delicate myself, I think that just did me in for the day. First of all I had an email from a student teacher who is upset because she can’t figure out who her supervisor is and everybody is being mean to her and nobody will help her. Okay, her situation HAS been really confusing. First of all, her actual supervisor is a woman who is really just picking up overflow students in the Winston-Salem area, and not the usual Winston supervisor.  The student went to the regular supervisor’s meeting during orientation, and nobody figured out she was in the wrong place because THAT supervisor was in Scotland  so her students were meeting with a THIRD supervisor who didn’t know exactly who was going where. Apparently her real supervisor then emailed her what she interpreted as being a scolding letter because she wasn’t at her meeting, where she was supposed to be. (This supervisor is a VERY nice woman and I sincerely doubt she was mean to this student. I also have no idea why the student didn’t tell her real supervisor that she was there, but was in the wrong meeting, thus ending this drama then and there.) Second, this student emailed her first journal entry that they do weekly to an entirely DIFFERENENT supervisor, who not only supervised out-of-area students (and Winston isn’t out of area) but also isn’t even here now – she’s moved to Alabama. When THAT supervisor forwarded the journal to me, I just assumed the student was an out-of-area student and forwarded it on to the out-of-area supervisor. Who was in Scotland.  So yeah, I just made everything even WORSE. 

ANYHOW, the supervisor-who-was-in-Scotland (where I’m really wishing I also was about now) has been exchanging emails with Confused Student and this morning forwarded me an email telling the student that she’s NOT her supervisor and she’s REALLY sorry the student is so confused, but she needs to contact our office. So I immediately email the student and let her know who her supervisor actually is (which she already KNOWS because she’s complaining that her supervisor was MEAN to her, so I’m not sure at this point what the problem is) and I give her that supervisors email and phone number so she can contact her DIRECTLY and get this all straightened out.

As soon as I hit "send", the phone rings, and it’s the student’s mother. Who is just terribly upset by all this and her daughter is all upset and has cried for days because she doesn’t understand who her supervisor is and everyone is being mean to her.

At that point I really just want to say, "Oh for fuck’s SAKE, this is not that big a DEAL and your kid needs to grow UP and maybe if you weren’t making her phone calls FOR her that would HELP," but of course I try to be nice and I try to be polite and I listen to this saga again, which has now developed a few more chapters. Like there’s some seminar the student is supposed to come to here on campus today and she doesn’t think she ought to have to do that. It has something to do with Elementary Ed students.  I don’t have anything to do with that and I’m also not at all sure what her confusion over her supervisor has to do with not going to this meeting, other than the fact that everyone is being mean to her. And nobody will call her back and nobody will email her back and WWWAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH.

Keep in mind that this student has been student teaching for two weeks now. I really don’t know how she’s gone for two weeks without figuring out who her supervisor is, especially when her supervisor did in fact email her this supposedly harsh letter about missing the meeting two weeks ago. But apparently everyone is being so mean to her that she just can’t think straight. WhatEVER. I told the mommy who the supervisor is, I gave the mommy the supervisor’s number, I apologized to the mommy for forwarding her dippy daughter’s journal entry to the wrong supervisor and I didn’t ask the mommy what the hell her dippy daughter was doing emailing it to not only the out-of-area supervisor when she’s not an-out-of area student, but emailing it to the out-of-area-supervisor who isn’t even HERE now to begin with and who never had anything to do with ANY of ths. And I really AM sorry about all this confusion, partially brought on by this chaotic office, but honestly. If she thinks this is bad, wait till she gets out in the Real World of Public Education.

So I’ve barely hung up with the mommy when in comes another problem child. Well, this one isn’t a child. This one is a 71 year old man. Yes, he’s 71 and he’s student teaching. He’s been in the certification program for four years now and keeps signing up to student teach and then changing his mind. This time he’s actually gone so far as to get an assignment and start student teaching, but apparently yesterday his cooperating teacher fired him. No, I don’t think they can really do that. And I’m not sure why he came to my office to tell me about it, but there he was, giving me the whole story, using a VERY loud voice. I think he hoped to talk to Dr. Airhead, who of course is not here. As usual. I didn’t know WHAT to tell him. He kept asking me if this was fair and if that was fair – according to him, he was fired for making the students obey the class rules and the teacher was making plans with him for the next week, then sent his university supervisor in to tell him he was fired. I certainly couldn’t say "Yes, that’s VERY unfair!" since I am not at all involved in this and don’t know a thing about the other side of the story, and I’m SURE there’s another side to this story.

So I’m just trying to make sympathetic noises. And I’m about a hair from just bursting into tears because I’m overloaded and I keep having to deal with these problems that I’m not equipped to deal with (there is an unbelievable number of student teaching crises this semester – five or six have either had to be moved or have been booted out, which is VERY unusual) and I’m basically a big whiney baby these days ANYHOW. Baker B’s aunt died yesterday, we have to go to the viewing today, we’re inundated with horrible Katrina stories and I’m just feeling kind of unhinged lately. Which is neither here nor there, but I really didn’t want to burst into tears since 1) it’s unprofessional , 2) HE was the one with the tear-inducing problem, not me, so: 3) it would be kind of crazy for me to burst into tears.

Lucky for us all, Dr. Airhead picked that very moment to phone in, so he got to talk to the poor guy, and is having a meeting with him tomorrow. And I escaped unteary.  And done in. 

So, whine whine whine. I just want to crawl under my desk right now, thanks very much.

On the upside, or at least the uplifting side, Kim is going to Houston tomorrow to help out at the Astrodome. She’s a nurse, and they need nurses, so she and a friend are going. I’m not at all surprised. They are just going on their own – apparently her hospital will be working with FEMA and sending people to Mississippi and Louisiana but they have to have some training and will probably be there for weeks. I don’t think they get paid, and Kim is too broke to do that too – she’s using her already-planned vacation for this. She was going to Florida with a friend, and is doing this instead. Kim is very noble, and we’re donating money since she has to buy her own plane tickets and get her own hotel. The city of Houston is directing this but isn’t paying for anything. We’d wanted to help out somehow, so this seemed an excellent way to do it. She may end up doing the FEMA thing too – I’m sure this will go on for a long, long time.

Okay, time to quit whining and do some work. We have to leave early to get to the viewing. Baker B’s aunt was quite elderly – in her early 90s – and had been in a nursing home for years but his mother talked to her every day and I know she’s very upset. It just sucks seeing everyone get old and fall apart.