I Hardly Know Where To Begin
There is SO much going on!
The Little League field where I often work in my "off" time has opening day tomorrow. Can you say sore feet and aching legs? Although I really kind of enjoy it because I miss following my kids – my son mostly – around the ball parks and all the associated activities. This way I am in the thick of it, but totally unaffected by any of it because – Hey! It’s not MY kid getting treated unfairly by the coach or screwed by the umpires!! *grins*
I got an answer from my City Councilman. I wrote him voicing my dissatisfaction with the treatment the utilities department was handing out to me in their customer dis-service department. I received a reply e-mail from a senior staff member telling me who she had passed my complaint along to. Then, I actually got a call from the manager of the customer dis-service department. So far we have been playing phone tag, but I am optimistic. At least I got SOME sort of response and in a timely manner. There’s one vote I’m glad I cast!
At school our cafeteria is under renovations. Let’s just talk about our cafeteria. What can I say about their food? Would you think me too crass if I said that my dogs have thrown up better looking messes than what they serve the kids? Well, your sensibilities aside, that’s pretty much the truth. It is AWFUL. MOST of my school is on free or reduced lunch programs which means they are LOW income and probably don’t get any sort of real meals at home….and THEY won’t eat it. It’s that bad. Now that they have shut down the kitchens for renovation the unthinkable has happened – it’s worse.
Being an opportunisitc crazy woman, I jumped on this chance. I cleared my idea with the principal…and now my students serve a take-out lunch once a week for the faculty only. (We are not allowed to feed the students because that would put us in competition with the school cafeteria. Heaven forbid the slop house should have any competition!) I put out a "menu" and give the faculty a deadline by which they have to tell me what they would like to have.
Last week their choice was either a Mandarin chicken salad with a yummy home-made peanut dressing or a french dip sandwich, complete with au jus. The salad came with a side of tiny egg rolls and the sandwich had chips and a pickle wedge. Both meals came with a peanut butter cookie with a chocolate kiss baked in. This week their choice was either a chicken caesar salad with bread sticks or a meatball sub with chips and a pickle. Dessert was a scrumptious brownie filled with raspberry preserves. (The brownie was TO DIE for!)
We charge $4.00 for each meal and the meals are delivered to your room at the time you request. Our school mascot is an "archer"….so we call our little enterprise The Arrow Cafe.
We’re not making any money. We cover our costs and have been able to bank about $20 each time. However, the students are having a GREAT time and they are SO PROUD of themselves. The fight to deliver the meals. In part they like to be out walking around, but the other part of that is that they want their teachers to recognize what they’re doing. The teachers have been GREAT about making sure the kids know how yummy their food is. I get inquiries about next week’s menu almost every day. We serve about 40 meals each week. It’s wearing. I have to keep the students who aren’t participating occupied and keep the Cafe cooks on target. But some of these kids are REALLY good at it. And even the "rotten" kids toe the line and perform well when it’s their turn to participate. They are such cool kids!!
From cool kids to hot teachers. No, not that kind of hot. Hot in a bad way. We have one teacher who is a menace. He is the sort of person that you just KNOW is going to be the subject of a sensational headline some day. PSYCHO TEACHER DOES….. He is so nuts. He eats constantly, handing the students back papers with food stains and even bits of food all over them. He yells and hollers and calls them names. I have HEARD him calling students stupid and worthless. He routinely calls out their grades on assignments to the whole class which is a big NONO because we should not embarass our students by telling everyone their lousy grades. Of 25 students in his last class of the day, he has failed 21. I have personally placed myself between him and a student when he was in a blind rage – to protect the student. He had the child backed into a corner and was inches from her face SCREAMING at her just ouside my room. When I intervened and sent her into my room, he FOLLOWED her into my room, stood in the doorway and continued to scream at her until I had to call an administrator to remove him. He calls in sick often and, since there are not enough subs in this county, his students usually end up split between other classes and therefor receive NO instruction 4-5 times each month. Did I mention the man is psycho?
Well, psycho teacher was out again the other day and the principal went into his room to find some lesson plans. He didn’t find those, but he DID find a large serrated knife and a screwdriver on the man’s desktop. He also found dirty dishes and food crusted on the desk. FINALLY it got to be too much and the man received a disciplinary letter, giving him a time limit to clean up his room. That was yesterday.
Today he got into another public altercation with a student. Then he stood out in the hallway on his cell phone yelling and cursing into the phone. Later in the day he made an attempt to clean up his room and…….(Sit down – this is gonna freak you out) underneath his piles of crap were multiple ant hills – about 8" tall and a foot wide each. OH MY LORD!
Ours is a county which is seriously short of teachers. Teachers here are NOT well paid. (A first year teacher makes a little less than $30,000.00) But there is no reason to tolerate this sort of behavior from a teacher. Not only that, but his antics make it doubly and triply hard on those of us who really care about the kids and are trying our best to help them learn. I hope hope hope that THIS time there will be follow through and the students can look forward to being free of him SOON.
Hang on – did
I just slip into rant mode again? Dang it all. I’m just a bucket of nerves since that leather kilt……..
That teacher is deplorable. I love the idea of the meals, and they sound yummy! You are such a great teacher!
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dang, reading about food has made my stomach grumble. what a wonderful thing you’re doing with the Arrow Cafe! mrPhycho teacher should get a swift kick out the door. i’d pull my kid if i learned he called names. or yelled. i know many simply don’t have that option. of course, the obvious question, can’t they get rid of him?
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There are teachers at my school who dare eat the cafeteria food but I don’t dare. I am surprised that psycho teacher hasn’t been fired yet.
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I would have paid more than $4 to have lunch brought to my room when I was teaching..
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that teacher is a moron and needs to be fired. I hope that something is done about him. And I think your Arrow Cafe is a great idea, it’s too bad you can’t extend it to the kids, but at least the teachers can benefit. And it’s something that will last with those kids you do have running it. 🙂
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Wow. . . I can’t believe they put up with teachers that horrible. ANT HILLS? disgusting. Sounds a bit like our apartment, but that definitely isn’t our fault. That program you have for the kids is cool, it’s too bad you can’t feed the kids lunch. It reminds me of an episode from season one of Malcolm in the Middle where he’s picking at his school food and says “All I can recognize is little . . .”
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. . . pieces of hot dog and. . . I don’t know, I think they’re skittles” Our school food was gross, but mostly in the fact that it was greasy, and there were edible things like campbells soup. . . and the 3rd Thursday of the month was Mashed Potatoes and Turkey Gravy. . . which was the BEST!
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RYN: I fixed the link, it should work now 🙂
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That teacher has to go. He’s ill – and he’ll infect the students! Congratulations on your new catering service. What a lot of extra work, but well worth it. It will be catching, too – but in a lovely way. I can just imagine what good things it’s doing for the students’ self-esteem.
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That guy needs to go. What is wrong with your principal that he hasn’t already gotten rid of him? He will end up hurting someone. Be very careful around him…
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No teacher and full time substitutes would be better than keeping this guy on staff. Major looney tunes guy who gives me the creeps just reading about him! 🙂
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It’s teachers like that jerk that make kids hate school because most times they are too scared to tell anyone for fear of failing, or getting in worse trouble or they have the “US and THEM” hang up. I’m so VERY glad there are teachers like YOU in the world you are my Teaching “Her’O” Lael
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That teacher sounds like the kind of guy who comes back to work armed to the teeth and seeking vengence. Be careful, Sunshine Wolf.
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That’s an amazing project you’re running. It will benefit the kids so much!
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Your Cafe is a brilliant idea, I hope you can expand on it, or at least get the cafeteria to shape up, they can do so much better than sub-standard. The teacher from hell, I agree that no teacher is better than that.. Hang in there, YOU are an instrument for change..
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Psycho teacher — Incredible! (and not in a good way.) I think his twin brother was our IT person for 5 years. He’s since been dismissed, but it took a loooooong time to do so. Your Arrow Cafe is incredible (in a good way!) Who knows? You may be interesting some of those “bad” kids to enter culinary school. Bravo for Miss Wolfie — the TRULY incredible teacher!!!!
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Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. Even a severe staff shortage does not justify tolerating such behavior more than once. Your meal plan is a wonderful idea. Bravo!
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Blevins’ noteof warning is right, Sunshine. Please be VERY careful not to get in the way of that psycho’s knife. You probably are a threat to his crazy little world- and especially if & AFTER he gets fired. Isn’t there a small container of stuff to stop attack by a madman?
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A 1st year teacher makes just less than $30K. I am making $30K right now as a 6 yr teacher and my principal thinks my room is “dirty”. I have no crusted food, not 8″ ant hills. I simply have piles of papers which are assignments handed in and not graded and assignments to be handed out. r
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The Arrow Cafe sounds like a fantastic idea, for the kids as well as the staff!The psycho teacher needs sacking.A Newly Qualified Teacher here has a starting salary of around £19,000 – or about $33,000. Unless you work in London, where you start at £23,000/$40,000.
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Egads. And they wonder why so many folks turn to home-schooling. That is, those who can afford to do so. That Arrow Cafe is fabulous.Really, they should let the best teachers (including you) run the schools and back that up financially. That’s how the HS I went to — a public school, mind you! — ran, & it was the best educational experience I ever had. One can dream….
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I donÂ’t understand how this crazy teacher gets a warning for a sloppy desk but heÂ’s not reprimanded for intimidating and humiliating students. Your really are funny. Your entries always make me laughÂ…even when youÂ’re writing about the psycho teacher from hell.
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Still, even with the shortage of teachers there is no excuse for him being in the classroom. When I was in 7th grade (1976) We had a big black male teacher who pulled these same stunts. He would physically push students out his door into the hall for practically nothing. He was fired. And left the state. I wonder if he’s in FL…Mr. Yarbrough…
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how has he not been stabbed? or shot? ya just don’t disrespect some kids like that….. not and get away with it….. i don’t condone it, and most kids won’t go there, but he’s stupid as well as sick in the head to treat anybody like that….. there. you ain’t up there on your rant-box all by yourself.
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Yay! Wonderful! Ewwww! Scary. With smile, knowing you can sort out the commentary…
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I DID read this a couple days ago. Why didn’t I note? I don’t remember. Maybe it was the image of the leather kilt. I had this vision in my head of a very well-built, handsome guy with gorgeous legs …. never mind. I don’t know if children read your diary….
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That’s disgusting. End of story ewwww
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There! Happy now? With a grin…
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Not only loaves of cinnamon toast, but pots of Earl Grey tea to go with. Bergamot is also an anti-viral. I’m thinking blueberry pie might also be good. With a hacking cough and a grin…
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Wnat me to come down and beat him up?
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Just looking around. With a smile…
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I think that I would love to teach. But I don’t think I could afford such a cut in income until my own kids clear college.
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pops in to make sure that dear Sunshine is still alive Helloooo are you in here somewhere………………………………. Lael
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Are you still into leather kilts? Have you seen the new kilt that with the Scottish flag pattern. Soooo lovely when they twirl around. Mmmmmmmm
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I came here after browsing someones favs and ended up here. I hope you are a regular writer because this was gooood reading. Hope to hear more from you!
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