21 August 2026
There is no way I'm living through this and still remaining employed in May if I don't force the practice of writing every Friday.
I'd write daily if I could.
But the AC is not on yet in the building--because why would it be?--and it's 80 degrees in my second floor classroom with three fans, ceiling fans and closed blinds. The window bank is west facing. Even if the AC was on, my registers are disconnected and haven't been reconnected.
There's a reason, hold on.
I have MI/S students in Peer to Peer theatre. These are "Multiple Impact Severe Needs"--- defined as SSN in other districts---kids with multiple obstacles; CP, premature, autism spectrum, speech delays/difficulty, and seizures.Two of them have heat induced seizures, which became ubiquitous in January when the heat registers came on and the kids responded by seizing.
So. I asked the building manager to dismantle the registers to avoid the trauma these seizures cause happening during theatre class. Which they did.
The registers were never reconnected, and now it's 80 degrees with no air conditioning in my room, and I'll have these kids on Monday.
Maybe they'll fix it. Maybe the AC will come on.
Maybe monkeys will fly out my butt.
This week in review:
I went back Monday. "Teacher directed work day" means well damn, now I have to deal with all the crap I relocated from the theatre and loaded into 233 last May. Because the theatre is closed for renovation. I will pause while you sing a phrase from Little Shop Of Horrors "Closed For Renovation".
That was fun, wasn't it? I'm happy we shared that moment.
This is largely a lesson in "Do something today that future you will appreciate."
Fuck Past kryssi.
It's not as much schlepping as it is realizing I have to teach Stagecraft without a stage, and finding cardboard, and buying hot glue guns and planning to build models and morgues and keep the kids active and tactile in a classroom while forcing them to learn design.
Tuesday was my district directed day. So I spent 8 am-4 pm with the other theatre teachers. Not all of them, some of them are too good for the meetings -no names mentioned- but the core that show up regularly are good people who I enjoy. Also against all odds, the old dog learned a few new tricks. All theatre is derivative, but still, I learned derivations.
I approach these mandatory meetings with the same grit with which I face my mammograms;necessary, frequently painful, occasionally the tech thinks I'm funny, and sometimes I say I attended but I did not.
Oh ya, I need to schedule that. I missed it this summer. Anyway....
Since we only have three Forced District Meetings this year, and since we as a building are Fighting The Man -"The Man" being the district--I figured I'd go. Represent! We can't all win awards, some of us just keep doing our jobs.
First of all, it was at Montbello High School. Which is a DPS school located in Aurora. The mailing address is Denver but...it's not. It's Aurora. So...that was a fun drive, full of trauma and PTSD. Yet it is a gorgeous building that is not even remotely wheelchair accessible. I am not in a wheelchair, I just take note of such things, and you see those two statements as unrelated, and you are wrong. This is my brain and my blog. Try to keep up.
It was a long day, but to be fair, I enjoyed my time. Even though nobody really talks to me, because even for a theatre teacher I'm awkward and weird 'cause I'm an introvert who looks like she will bite you. Very Wolverine. Which tracks. And now you hear C. Thomas Howell yelling "WOLVERINES", which means we're friends. Love you.
Wednesday the real hell began: meetings. I have to give my principal her propers, she has slides like I do---just words, very little to look at, maybe a GIF or two and NO AI-- and strips it down to Whatcha Need To Know. She holds the line and I love it. I do not always agree with what the line is, but damn she does everything for the kids and the good of the building at the forefront. Dude. I've never had a principal like this. It's wild.
Then yesterday and today, more meetings with departments and the realization that she's leaving the dirty work to the department chairs. I was feeling vaguely hopeful after Wedesday, Thursday pushed it a bit and today was utter hell.
I'm Done With Platforms. I'm Done Being Evaluated. I'm DONE submitting slides and lesson plans and assement dates on three different platforms to prove that I mounted the shows you saw with your eyeballs.`
24 Years. 40 plus shows.
All performing arts teachers feel me.
Dude...Did you see a show? Did you watch a concert?
Do you think the kids did that on their own?
Stop making me create a paper trail so you can prove I did the thing You Saw With Your Own Eyeballs.
I literally ran out of spoons today. I completely melted in our department meeting. I said outloud. "I'm not doing this; fire me" and I meant it.
We'll see if I do it or if they fire me. Hours of my time on a computer that I hate frustratingly trying to get technology to work for me **** CALL LADONNA LENZ SHE WILL BACK ME UP**** When she was tech at Littleton, even she couldn't figure out why nothing worked for me the way it worked for others. We even had to have a district guy come in to make the professional declaration ; "I've never seen anything like this. IT hates you."There is something IN me that fucks with technology. My brain hears bees and the platforms do not work.
Facts.
This is year 24 and I'm calling it. Nothing you're making me do impacts my effectiveness in the classroom, but it does impact my mental health. I am not a better teacher because I linked my daily slides and data on two different platforms,reposted the calendar you posted in the slide show into my "Learning Log", reposted my assessment dates from my syllabus into said LL...I dunno what else, my brain melted.
Out. Of. Spoons.
So no. Not doing it.
I happen to know of a Really Crappy theatre teacher in another district, who does this shit and gets good marks, but produces nothing.
Which one of us is an effective teacher?
cell phones
The state of Colorado passed legislation banning cell phones at school.
I have many opinions. The primary of which is TOO LITTLE TOO LATE. Which seems silly as it's a statewide ban in all public schools-how is that too little?--but still. It's my blog.
While I have always been a screaming bitch about cell phones on stage,this is not new. However, what IS new is our team---consisting of choir, band, theatre and art--must have the same solution. I can't do bags and art does a box and band does pockets. We have to all align. Not the whole building, just us. Because...why?
If I'm on stage the chant is "Come in, go potty (yes, I say "potty" it's funny they're in high school), phone in your backpack, backpack in the house, bodies on stage."
But now I'm in a classroom, so I have a box.
I also don't have a backstage bathroom so it's "Get in, shove the phone in the box and siddown."
It's a cell phone storage box the building purchased for all of us. That I have to put together.
Assembly required.
As the principal said "Bob the Builder".
On Friday. This meeting and box reveal was on Friday. Today. After a week of putting a classroom together, district meetings; after struggling with platforms, heat, no AC, arthritis, failing eyesight and no interest in building a fucking cell phone box.
I built it wrong, cried, put it back in the package and returned to the platforms.
Which made me scream.
So that's how it's going.
How're you?
All in all, in conclusion, to sum up: it's fine, I'm fine, stop looking at me.
I'm fine.
Scene.
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