1 Week down. . . .is it break yet?

It has only been 3 days worth of actual school days and I'm ready to quit. Half the computers aren't working--at least not consistently; the kids aren't wanting to do what is necessary; I'm not happy with the numbers that I have in my classes; etc, etc, etc.

The new classes I have are kicking me. What am I supposed to do with oversized classes and not enough equipment to keep all of them on task and ready to go? I asked the counselors and the principal to downsize my classes (like we agreed to at the end of last year) and they said they could if I would get  parental permission to drop them. Umm, no? If their student gets dropped from a class, they get dropped. You don't always get the classes you want and I believe that the teacher should have some say in what is going on in their classrooms. If there is a student that is being completely disruptive, they should be taken out of the class or at least give the teacher the option of doing something about it.

The other issue is Parents. Parents are driving me nuts already. I had one drop by and tell me that her son had to be in my Broadcasting class because he was going to be the next Anderson Cooper or Brian Williams and that he needed to be in front of the camera constantly, not behind it. I just sat there and when she was done I calmly told her that everyone will have time both in front of the camera and behind it. That no one person will constantly be in front and that they will be in charge of the different departments.

There are other issues going on within the Faculty (I'm ready to strangle a couple of the teachers--not that I would, but just the feeling that they need a swift kick) and I come home more frustrated and ready to just cry and crawl into a hole.

Frustration Abounds and starting a new school year

Another school year has started. Well, technically it starts tomorrow, but I'm not looking forward to it. Actually, I haven't been looking forward to this year at all. We're starting a new program at the school (which I was excited about at the end of last year) but now that we've run into so many problems, I'm having second thoughts about it.

What's happening is driving me nuts. I have a Window's lab and it is rather old. At the district we're at a 5-6 year cycle with our computers. Mine are about 7-8 years or older. We've been using XP as our OS since I took over the position and it works great with different users and programs. Well, last Friday we were back in our classrooms for the first time and a tech guy from the district came in and said that XP was no longer going to be supported so the district decided to change all XP machines. That day. Yes, 3 days before school was supposed to start. So since they didn't buy new machines for me, the ONLY upgrade (and I hesitate to call it that) was to  . . . . . . . Vista. YUCK! This isn't an upgrade at all.

So after 2 days of him working on it, half the lab still isn't finished and the half that is, doesn't work. Then they re-imaged my teacher computer and it doesn't connect to the network or the printers and half the software doesn't work.

So not happy at all. Frustrated at everything. We'll see how the first day tomorrow goes.