Madness

I’ve had a pretty crazy time these past two days, so I’m just going to write about it stream of conscious.

Yesterday, J, one of the five head teachers in my school, didn’t show up for work. It was even stranger because he knew that his T.A. wasn’t going to be in until the afternoon. His 17, 10-yr olds were in their classroom alone until they saw Kelly in the hall and asked her to come in. She ended up running a spontaneous morning meeting.

At first, knowing J, who was here last year, is cozy with the director, and is known for having a nightlife, I wasn’t too concerned. By the afternoon, however, when the primary and middle school directors left school to go to his house, 45 min. away, I was a little nervous. After school, when all we’d heard was that he had left for work in the morning but hadn’t shown up, I had that achy feeling in my stomach. By night, when he had been reported to the embassy, who would check the hospitals and police stations for him, I was a nervous wreck. It probably didn’t help that the day before we were informed of a serious community tragedy. A 7th grader from our school and his mother were killed over the break in a car accident, and I had to tell my kids before they heard it on the bus. That made for a solemn closing meeting with six year olds.

At home, it was hard to think about anything else, even while at the back of my head I felt that this could all be a misunderstanding. It’s J! I’m sure he’s fine! It did make us realize, though, that we have no contact information here. I don’t even carry ID on me, because there’s no drinking limit, so if I were to be in an accident there’d be no way to identify me... All really awesome things to think about while you’re stressed and in a foreign country.

Finally, in the morning, I got an email from the director that said she heard from J, his phone was dead and he had no internet, and he will be back to school tomorrow. WHAT THE HELL? Where was he? What is this? Since then I’ve been unofficially told by my administration that he was “helping a friend in an emergency” and officially that he had a fever and “took Chinese medicine that made him pass out after he thought he sent a text that he wasn’t coming.” What shady madness is going on at this school?

This morning was also stressful for me because all of my student’s parents had called a meeting with my director and the vice principal of my school to address their “concerns,” namely, that I don’t use text books, focus enough on math, or give enough mindless worksheets as homework. There is nothing like knowing that I was being ripped apart by my “sharks”, after a night of being worried sick, to help someone run a successful morning meeting. And to top it all off, it’s the 6th day of an 8 day week of consecutive school. It’s “Saturday” in my life- damn it!

Luckily, my director is totally on board with me. She came in after the meeting, watched my class, and reassured me that my kids are so much more engaged and in control than they were before. She helped to remind me that these parents don’t understand progressive ed., and that most of them aren’t going to get it this year.

Needless to say, I’m looking forward to parent teacher conferences.