bed goes up, bed goes down

bed goes up
Thursday and it's back to work. Meet old friends, talk about holidays. The promise of a new year tends to over-ride the depression of being back at work. I'm full of optimism. The last couple of years have been...complicated. My job has changed, normally two/three months in, changing my timetable, my plans for the academic year. This time though, this time it is all going to work out right. I finished last year on a high. I'd done everything asked of me plus a little more. I'd built myself into a place where nothing can go wrong. This year is all planned out. I know what I'm doing, I'm happy with what I'm doing, this year is solid. As a group, we wander into the first meeting, laughing, smiling. Everything is cool.

bed goes down
There's been a problem with the school's finances. Not a major problem, it is all being sorted out, and I will get paid...eventually. However, it appears that as the money problems occurred, the school agreed to accept a certain amount of new pupils, assuming that a certain amount of pupils weren't returning. This means that, suddenly, there is a huge influx of pupils in the third grade, a grade that was already full. There will be three third grades. In which case, an extra teacher is needed. The easiest way to do this is to put the two fifth grades together (making a group of 23) which releases one of the fifth grade teachers to become a third grade teacher. The knock-on effect is that the P.E. teacher has two more lessons a week, the art and the music teacher have one more lesson a week, and they now need someone to teach the maths to the fifth grade - an hour-a-day, every day, in the morning. I've built into my new timetable a free hour, every day, in the morning (when my class has Spanish), so that I can visit a different classroom every day and help with the maths teaching. This will give me an overall view of the maths and make sure that everything is going well. It is part of my Maths Coordinator role. And, just like that, my plans crash and burn. I've got fifth grade maths.

bed goes up
The meeting didn't turn out to be as painful as expected. As usual, we started with a long list of attributes that we should possess as teachers. This is something I find slightly surreal. However, when ever I question it, the answer is we are Mexican. To me, with background, I sort of feel that the first rules of signing a contract is a agreement to turn up to work on time and as often as possible. However, these are rules that my employers feel, aren't necessary inherent in Mexican-work-ethos. So, we go through a long list of rules about time-keeping, absenteeism, staying in the classroom, fulfilling basic tasks. We go through three group exercises: meditation; a what if scenario; listing qualities of our colleagues. The meditation is a bit scary. After a holiday where my body clock has been messed about, getting up a 6:15am was a shock to the system. I spend most of the guided meditation worried that if, I cleared my mind and totally relaxed, I would actually fall asleep. I manage to hang in there by reciting the 79 times table in my head - this in my "visit to the dentist" fall back situation. It occupies my mind on something complex and distracts from what is going on. In a group of six, we sit and discuss how we would feel/think/questions we'd ask if "we'd gone to sleep twenty years ago and woken up today". The obvious question (for me) is why the fuck is everyone speaking Spanish? Finally, we were asked to write down, on one side on a piece of card, a positive value that a person had, and on the other, a value/quality that that person needs to work on. We then had to post the cards into each person's letter box (a brown paper bag with the label [in my case] that read: William is a wonderful person. According to my colleagues I have the following positive qualities: happy(3), organised(3), honest(3), sincere, great friend, fair(2), responsible, intelligent(2). The qualities I have to work on are: humble, prudent, try to be more tolerant, smile more, compassion, his ego, willing to help. So, now I know.

bed goes down
The meeting broke up, as we separated into Primary teachers and Kindergarden teachers. It is then that I discover that I haven't got the classroom I wanted. I had planned on getting the biggest classroom in the school, as I had the largest group, 22 pupils. But, thanks to the fifth grade being 23 pupils, I lost out. In that moment my plans of classroom activities, a reading corner, a growing corner, space to move, all those ideas disappear. I will be in a room that will be cramped - just holding 22 desks, my desk, and very little free floor space.

bed goes up
I spent a long time, at the end of last year, arguing about the way that English is taught. Because we have to study Spanish, the timetable leaves only five and a half hours a week to study English. One of the ways that the school quantifies its English learning is via spelling tests. This meant that two and a half hours a week were spent on spelling lists/learning/testing. Reading held the second place in importance, with grammar in a poor third. Writing got an almost zero appearance on the syllabus. My argument was that reading and writing should take the top two places. The grammar and spelling (and most importantly, comprehension) would flow from these. Low and behold, I was heard! The English syllabus has been re-aligned. I'm back to being excited about the academic year!

bed goes down
I've been away from Maria for over seven hours. When I climb into the car I should be happy. I've missed her throughout the day, and here I am, with her again. She smiles, we kiss, she asks how my day went, I hit her with all the bad points. It isn't fair to rant at her but I forget this. For ten minutes I wail, I moan, I complain, I bitch. I say not one positive thing. I'm wrong. I'm wrong to do this. And she is wonderful. She listens, she lets me rant, and then she supports. She spends the next twenty minutes digging me out the hole I'm trying to bury myself in. And I forget that she's had a shit day - she's had a day without me, she's missed me, she's been looking forward to being with me, and all I am being is a bastard. I love her.

bed goes up
We get invited to a friend's house (tomorrow - Friday). This is brilliant because, by all the rules of convention, I feel guilty as it is our turn to be hosts and I owe them. This starts a chain of events in my mind. Yes, I haven't been paid but good times can still happen. Yes, I've got a screwed over timetable but I get the chance to teach maths (a subject I enjoy teaching) to a group who, next year, will be my students. Yes, I don't have the classroom I wanted but I can do this/that and maybe it ain't so bad. Yes, things might look bad but I am here, in Mexico, doing what I like doing, and (more importantly) it is 3:30pm. The rest of the day is mine and I am with her. We curl up on the sofa, we watch a couple of films, we kiss, we talk, we go to bed. All is right with the world. I am with Maria, and with her, all is wonderful. Bed stays up.

Comments

[will]

It occurs to me, that sometimes my titles to blog posts make no sense to anyone but me. I would like, because it is my way, to apologise, but I won't.

No prize offered, but go on (you know you want to) any ideas what this post references?

[Alan]

79 times table, I'm the man!

[Blue Witch]

No idea, but I think it's *appalling* that you still haven't been paid. Don't parents pay depositis/fees in advance over there like they do over here?

Hope things settle down soon, and that you do get some free time.

[J.A.]

I would say is similar to the doll thing; "so many times up, so many times down; it doesn't matter if you are down you will come up again".

Or it could be a reference of those mattresses that you pull from the wall (seem to be a closet) and depending if you are ready to take on the world you either close it (up) or you let it as a bed (down; you know, for re-energizing yourself?)

[will]

@blue witch - It is appalling but it needs to be done with a sense of humour. In theory, because teachers exist on a year to year contract, we should have been paid for the last three paydays (we're paid every two weeks) in a lump sum at the end of the academic year. Personally I am used to being paid every month - although I've adapted to being paid on the 15th and the last day of the month. But, if I'd been paid in one lump sum on the 30thof June, I would (probably) have spent the whole damn lot before my next pay-day - 31st (29th) August. So, I was quite happy that they couldn't pay us in a lump sum and spread it out. Whisper it quietly (don't tell j.a.) but, it appears, the school did actually pay us on the 15th - they were just worried that they couldn't. As it worked out, we needed the money because we owed j.a. and b.m. a meal on the town. Because I thought we had no money, we ended up at their house and had a wonderful evening! So, it was a bonus. Obviously, when we actually go for the "night on the town" it will be an anti-climax and I will feel guilty.

As to free time - I don't think it is going to happen. I spent too long, waaaaaay too long, living to teach. I am now in the era of teaching to live. I resent every hour/minute/second that I lose. However, I am highly paid compared to my colleagues (not compared to British pay scales) and, a lot of this job, I can do standing on my head. I won't get the free time in school hours but I will be free after. And, in my book, that is the important thing. Outside of school hours I am with Maria and I am a good enough teacher (that's my modesty shining through) to make sure that my hours, outside of school, do not resemble a British school teacher's! Yay me!!

Do not think I have forgotten your request about a Roman Numerals worksheet. The minute I get round to working one out, I'll send it! I think it will be a crossword.

@everyone else - The Simpsons. There is an episode that Homer is about to die. Everyone is gathered around him, on his hospital bed, trying to get him to focus on the important things in life, the BIG picture. And all he is interested in? Bed goes up, bed goes down!

[Vanessa]

Wondering if the humble / ego thing is related to stereotypes of how they expect a foreign teacher to be? You don't really sound not-humble!

The not paid thing is common across South America as far as I can tell. I'm still waiting on two months' salary from June 07, but amn't allowed to cite this when I refuse this year's job with the same university. I know others who are owed a year's salary, and going hungry, but it's against the local, er, thing, to complain about it.