Do-gooder thrown under bus. Story at 11.

I will preface this self-pitying rant with the acknowledgment that I do realize I should be thankful, in this economy, that I have a job.

That's about where my thankfulness ends.

I have said for years now that no good deed ever goes unpunished. I know that this is not a very Christian way of looking at the world, but I have seen it time and time again, and have been chanting this as a mantra for the last 6 years. Every time our school psychologist would qualify a kid for special ed just because it was to 'be nice' that family ended up biting us in the butt. I know that no good does from doing-good. And yet, I tried.

When our district cut staffing at my school, the least senior member of the team was the one to be reassigned. She had no say in where she would be reassigned. And I blogged before about how important it was for her to be able to stay at the school we taught at because her daughter goes there etc.

I also did not believe for a moment that, when I agreed to take her place as the person reassigned, our staffing numbers would remain dismally low. I mean... come ON??!! 9 grades (K-8) in a school that grew over the summer by 300 students?? No flipping way 2 Special Education teachers can handle THAT!!!

So - my good deed - offering to go to a different school so that my co-worker could do what is best for her family.. Yeah - now I am the one being bitten in the butt.

The school to which I have been reassigned... circa 1954. Fine. I can handle an old building. Ok, so my room smells bad. (really bad.. MOLD bad) Fine.. so there is NO WHERE for me to put my stuff.. Ok, so the new Principal didn't even know I was coming or that I was new to the campus and forgot to INTRODUCE ME TODAY during our first staff meeting. Fine.. I'm there to teach, right?

LRC right?? Learning RESOURCE Classroom. Not self-contained. Not Lifeskills, right?

Not so fast.

Yeah - it is called LRC but evidently my new caseload is just one step away from self-contained. This is not the population I either wanted to work with, or am good at. I won't be helping kids maneuver through their Social Studies text books... or helping them with their science or math.. I will be working with kids who do not know that "A" says "A". I will have kids who need paraprofessionals at age 13.

There are people in this world who are great at working with this population. There are folks with the patience to teach and reteach the same things for an entire year.

I am NOT one of those people.

Had I known... I would have let the other gal figure something out.

It is going to be a very unbearable 182 days.