... of timely journal entries, here goes.

It's been an interesting week, tiring, but interesting.

It was somewhat nice to be back at school, but at the same time, I'd like to have less work to do for it.

As predicted, one chemistry teacher will not be back. His stuff is still in his room, and I imagine he'll eventually get that back, but honestly, who really knows. The principal and API (assistant principal of instruction) spoke with each of his classes to let them know the basic situation and the plan. And, I suppose to give them an outlet for issues, concerns, and questions. Many of them were quite worried about their grades, understandably. Apparently his teaching style was to stand up there and talk about the material a bit and then say, "well it's all there in the book, go learn it." Perhaps not in those words, but you get the gist.

On Monday, I got the dreaded phone call. "Hey Judy, can you come down and talk to Bruce and me for a few minutes." I knew it was coming and what to expect and it was exactly as expected.

The conversation went something like this:
Them: We wanted to find out if you'd be interested/willing to teach Chemistry instead of Physical Science in the spring.
Me: Sure, I could do that.
Them: You wouldn't also be willing to teach an extra class would you?
Me: Um, remember back to the end of last year, remember that letter I submitted asking for a reduced schedule for this year?
Them: Yeah, we didn't think so, but thought we'd ask.
Never hurts to try, I suppose.

This whole mess pretty much took up much of our "socializing" time at school, when the teachers chat. Some of my science colleagues feeling upset that they'd felt sorry for him because his health wasn't good, others becoming more and more convinced that he did it. However, it is still a relative unknown. The official word is that he "chose to retire" whatever that means. We'll never know for sure, unless the police find enough to go after him, then EVERYONE will know.

They did find someone to take the next two weeks with his classes, at least, a student teacher who was at the school for part of the semester. He'd going to teach some basics and hopefully fill in the gaps (gaping holes?) in the students knowledge. He's taken on a thankless task, I just hope it doesn't send him running screaming from the experience.

As for the spring, they still don't know what they're doing yet.

So that's been a large part of my week, unfortunate but true.

Finals are coming up soon, I'm hoping for a smooth sail, but I've got to get them written.

OK, I'm starting to lose it, so I'm signing off now.