Back to School

I have started back at school. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the "job" God has for me. I see it as so much more than a "job." It is definitely my calling in life, and personal mission to advocate for and educate English Language Learners. However, it is exhausting. First of all, my numbers went from 8 to 18. Of course, I still have people that think 18 is nothing, because they teach 125 kids. What they fail to realize is that my kids are from all different countries, are on different language levels, and I must support content teachers spanning 7 grade levels with no teachers aide. I have about 50 minutes to give support AND teach my curriculum to kids who just came to America and kids who have been here 7 years. I am expected to give history tests, welding tests, earth science tests, and provide homework help for about 35 different courses with different teachers. I travel between 2 buildings. ALWAYS forget something at one school. In the middle school, I have ONE table and a room with curtains for walls. And while it sounds like I hate this job, I wouldn't quit for anything because I would do ANYTHING for these students of mine. I feel like I am on my own missions field in small town, PA. Here is my issue: the lack of support I get from co-workers. I really don't want recognition that I play superhero all day- I am far from perfect. I really don't want to blog about my co workers either. I just need to "vent" about why the last 5 days I was made to feel like my job was meaningless.

Day 1: A teacher says that his class has become a "dumping ground" for "those [my] kids."
Day 2: I overhear a teacher say that this year will be the best because they don't have any ESL kids. Do I take this personally? Of course. Should I? I don't know.
Day 3: A teacher asks if there are any 8th grade ELLs. I say "only 1" and she says "Thank GOD!"
Day 4: I meet with a teacher who says "I want to send all of my work down to your class. It is a studyhall, right?"

I have had to run across the school 4 out of the first 5 days to meet with teachers who are freaking out because they have a kid who can't speak English. I would LIKE to remind them that when I offered an ESL inservice in September, NO one from the high school showed up. Now, I come home late from school everyday because I am educating them on my time.

Also, there is the whole humanitarian issue. I make home visits (tonight I spent more than an hour rocking a baby at one of my student's houses while helping him and his mother with homework for social studies). I fill out free lunch applications, forms, help with bills, mail, etc.

But, I am made to feel useless. This never was meant to be a complaining blog. I really do love my job. But it feels SO good now that I wrote about it, and this could explain why I have been averaging 4/5 hrs. of sleep per night and cried the last 3 nights before bed. UGH. Talk about STRESSSSSSSS!