Down a Math Teacher Two Weeks Before Day 1

I was the only teacher in the building today. The battery on my school-issue laptop died, so I thought I'd go in and get another one if they had it and also poke around to see if my book order had come in. I also had a major craving for West Indian food- rice and beans, oxtail gravy and jerk chicken. It was nice being the lone soldier for a day, as I got a chance to talk my principal, which is difficult to do sometimes during the year when she's crazy busy like principals are. She informed me before sending out an email to the entire staff that our eighth grade math teacher would not be returning.

While this came as a a surprise (it is two weeks before school starts), we weren't completely blind-sided by it. Our math teacher looked for a job last year, was offered one, and then the budget was pulled for the job at the last minute so she stayed at our school. I'm both sad and grateful to see her go, and I'm happy for her in that she wanted to leave, she wanted a math coach position and she got both. It was best that she moved on.

It's important to keep negative chatter about colleagues to a minimum, not only because it's unprofessional, but because it oftentimes comes back to bite you. Schools are not sororities, nor are they locker rooms, regardless of whether the school has any. People who feed on gossip in an attempt to deal with their own insecurities certainly don't disappear because you are out of high school or college, nor does it stop because you are in a profession that is supposed to teach students how to be well-balanced adults.

Today's Wine: Beer, because it goes better with bratwurst.