Mz. Slmph is a bit overwhelmed at the moment. She’s far from alone at this point in the school year, but she articulates why one time-tested tactic for dealing with such a slump is no longer operative.
I know I would feel better, and things would probably go much more smoothly if I just let loose a little and went with the flow.
But who can let loose when, not only are the futures of 70 underprivileged students partially RIDING ON ME, but I've got members of the STA*TE ASS*STANCE TEAM lurking in the hallways, just waiting to "pop in" when I've let down my guard and possibly strayed slightly from the lesson plans I perfunctorily created the week before. Who can let loose when administrators at your school are looking to you, saying, "We expect the same scores you got last year," and, in the back of my head I'm thinking, "It ain't gonna' happen"?
With all these added pressures, Mz. Slmph likens teaching these days to Fear Factor: “I’m just waiting for you to split us up into the red team and the blue team and force us to lesson plan and enforce discipline while dangling from an ankle above the Grand Canyon.”
Now that, we’d watch.
(From What up, Mz. Slmph?)
