"grooming sexual abuse victims"

How many Seattle winter Friday afternoons are sunny? Not enough to make it okay to have to spend one inside in a state-mandated compliance class on Issues of Abuse. Yech. And then 6hrs more today, in case yesterday wasn't enough. The whole thing could have been done in about an hour forty five, which meant I was snarky pretty much all class.*

And then there was Grooming Sexual Abuse Victims, which must be the sordidest term I've heard in years. It's how sexual abusers pave the way for abuse situations, how they select the kids, isolate them and make them feel responsible, blah blah. Whoa. Is this why I went into teaching? Is this how I was hoping to make a difference and build a better future and all that crap? I mean, I know that it's unfortunately a real part of every class and every teacher's life, but man, I want to talk with kids about the Gilded Age and Sherman's March to the Sea and the Titanic and the idea of Core and Hinterland. Not if they're getting knocked around at home.

And now as a final sordid capper to the day, as I'm typing this one of the cats is chewing on the tip of a pencil that I scratched my ear with. How gross is that? Did you ever taste ear wax? How could a cat like that? What do you mean, TMI? [Other people food she's really into: bread, broccoli, and especially corn on the cob. Don't ask how we know that.] What kind of a day is this? Is it a contest? We better just turn the page to tomorrow.

That might break my stewing and worrying about the job market. I'm not even looking yet and I'm nervous that I won't be able to find a job. They keep predicting a coming teacher shortage, but at least out here in g*d's country, it keeps not quite hitting. And I can't be the soccer coach, which hurts my chances more.

I think getting serious about ESL will be valuable for job hunting -- as well as hugely valuable for actually teaching once I get hired somewhere. The percentage of ESL students is huge and getting huger every year, and I've become convinced of the importance of being well-trained and competent at working with them. Social studies in a sense is secretly a reading and writing class, but what do you when half your class doesn't speak English at home? You get yerself trained on how to teach reading and writing to non-native speakers.


* My fuse is short for poorly used time and poorly taught classes, I admit it. First of all, I'm way to old to piss away the hours of my life in stoopid classes. If we can do this in 2hrs, let's not take 9hrs for it. Duh. Second, this is, well, not the first instance of poor use of time so far in this program. Not the second neither. Just sayin'.