Graduation: The Last Day

I felt so awkward there. When the students were picking up their certificates I was taking pictures instead of shaking their hands with the rest of my staff. That is how I felt the entire time I worked there. They never made me feel included. And I really worked my butt off for these kids, but it just didn't seem to be recognized. The kids knew though, and that's why my entire class disappeared this week.

My boss read the names of the students who moved to the higher level course, meaning their reading levels improved by about 4 or 5 grades. He names 10 students, and 8 out of those 10 were my kids. YEAH! Unfortunately only two remain. I can only hope that they stay when I'm gone. It's so sad to work so hard and help so many people to feel that your work is basically lost when you leave. I mean I drilled those kids and made them work, work, work. I invested so much in them and in myself as a teacher. I guess I'll just have to carry it out elsewhere.

I was ready to leave a while ago. The hardest part of this job was dealing with the staff, and not the students surprisingly. A certain vindictive staff member always tried to make me look bad by persuading me to do something wrong so she could report me. I got my share of homophobia infused with some Jesus. Most of the staff were pretty lazy and unorganized, so the schedule constantly changed, things wouldn't get done right, they would stick me with a class that wasn't mine, etc. I became so annoyed at the inefficiency of these people. They became so annoyed at my hard work and success. I'm sure if I went back to this place in five years I would see that everyone was still there, doing the same job and making the same money. This job is a dead end. I'm looking forward to starting again somewhere new.