Work Stuff, Photo Books, and A Hurricane

Well, since the end of last school year, I have been dreading returning to work. I work on a team with one of my closest friends and 4 other teachers. Three of them, my friend H and I had a lot of problems with last year. They are young and selfish, and they do not have the best interest of our students at heart. H and I talked a lot over the summer about how to deal with them and work with them... We knew it was only a matter of time before things got bad again this year, and today that happened.

I have a lot going on in my life. I feel like I'm a good teacher and teammate. I am respected by my principal and co-workers... Except for these 3 teammates apparently. I won't get into details because it is so silly that I can hardly really explain it. I just feel so frustrated because it is ONLY September, and we have so much of this school year left.

To make a long story short, the "teammates" were upset about some things on a behavior plan for a student but said nothing about it when the plan was being created with the student, his dad, the team, and the school's therapist on Tuesday. Today's team meeting, the three of them attacked H about the plan. I wasn't there because I was training other teachers in the district on our new writing program. (I know I am making this long.) I don't really know the details, but I do know that H called me in tears during her lunch. My thought is that they chose to attack H today because I wasn't there. One of them actually told H that she should not be calling a parent when there is a behavior problem in her class. Instead, we should just talk to her and the teachers the student had before. They said some other things, too, just as bad.

I am a parent, as is H. One of the things I know is that if R is ever a problem in school, her teacher should contact me to let me know about it. Like the parent mentioned above, I would be happy that the teacher cared enough to tell me and wanted to work with me to improve my child's educational experience. This idea that we should NOT contact a parent is completely absurd and makes no sense to me.

So, tomorrow, I get to go in and face these people, after they attacked my dear friend yet again. I must remain professional, but it makes me feel ill knowing that all the things we had to deal with at the end of last year are happening again, and there is seemingly no solution to this problem.

On a total side note: I made some photo books on snapfish.com and got them in the mail today. They basically are to give to her grandparents, but I of course bought a copy for us, too. I LOVE IT! My friend M has been making photo books for a few months now, and this is the first one I've attempted. I love scrapbooking, and the photo books are nice because they are so quick and easy to make! I just might be addicted to it! At snapfish.com, the 8x11 books are 40% off until tomorrow if you use the code "sale40" when you check out. I decided it was a good time to try it out! :)

Also, my brother in FL is fine. The hurricane did not directly hit the Keys so he is ok. Thank you for your concern and prayers!