Mr. Educator and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Yesterday morning I was very lucky. While I was waiting to grab a parking spot, a much better one opened up around the corner. So I zipped around to grab it, but went a little too quickly. I went right over the curb and destroyed a very new tire. Nothing like changing a tire before your first class to get the old adrenaline going. And on what appears to be the last freezing cold morning for a while to boot.

My school has a Quality Review coming up. Everyone is nervous. What do they want? Will they hate us and everything we stand for, like everyone at Tweed does? Do they want to know about Life, the Universe, and Everything? How long will they want us to discuss it?

There's a big poster up. Apparently, they wish to consult with UFT (briefly). The word "briefly" is written right there on the suggested schedule. Apparently, the reviewer will observe classes from 12:30-2:30, and consult with UFT from 2:00-2:15. So this reviewer will indeed have to make it brief, as he's scheduled to be in two places at once. What if the UFT rep teaches that period? I suppose it will then be briefer still. I'm kind of glad I'm not a reviewer following a schedule like that.

Still, I suppose the reviewer need only be in two places at once. Teachers, facing an outlandish evaluation system based on crackpot hoodoo whatsis, are nervous enough already. After all, the prospects of losing our jobs based on two years of Bill Gates reading chicken entrails are pretty disconcerting to begin with. Further assessments are not feeling all that great right now.

When I got out of work, my car wouldn't start. I drive a Prius, so it's a push-button start. When it failed, I tried pushing the key in. The car still wouldn't start, and the key wouldn't come out. I walked around the block to the gas station, and with some doing, the guy there managed to start my car. Apparently my car has two batteries, the smaller of which needed replacing. That's good because the larger one costs about one million dollars. Smaller only $292 installed, but you have to wait around for 90 minutes to get it, because it's not what they keep around the garage.

Then I drove to Costco, where I waited another 90 minutes to get a tire that matched the set. Am hoping for less excitement today. I actually go to work to teach. I love teaching. But I have a feeling that Mayor Bloomberg would like every teacher's day to be like my day yesterday, every day, all the time, in perpetuity.

Until, of course, they all quit, to be replaced by non-tenured, non-unionized, non-pensioned temp workers, who, as far as Gates and Bloomberg are concerned, are good enough for kids who can't afford private school.