...haikus

Living and teaching here have gotten easier with time, but I'm learning that the final trimester is more stressful than the other two.  Not only is it getting hotter than heck, it's also time for evaluations, and folks are worried about having a job next year.  The eval process is different than at home, although they're trying to Westernize the process.  I was told to create a folder of evidence for my meeting with the principal.  No problem.

What I didn't realize was that we'd also have to create a department folder to give to the principal for her meeting with whomever is doing her evaluation.  Today was pure craziness.  The amount of stress in our little office was through the roof as we scrambled to pull "proof" from our own folders, make copies, and create a (redundant) department file. 

Someone on a FB page recently suggested that we write haikus about our experience here. This was my contribution: 

Shifting sands of gold

Glowing in the morning sun

Fill me with delight.

This morning's situation didn't inspire such sweetness and light.  Here is the "hai-cuss" that a coworker and I came up with:

Assembly report,

PDs, activities too,

 I cuss all day; sh**!



Whatever it takes to keep us sane, right??  :-)

Here are a few more that I wrote for the FB group:

I have finished, Miss!

Me!  Pick me! Meena?

Shoo?  Shiani…? (shrug).

(Meena is the name of a student, shoo = what, shiani = how do you say.  Meena often shrugs off my attempts to involve her in class activities.)

Adventure brought me,

Frustrations, daily: Khalas!

Girls tug my heart; “Stay.”

(Khalas! = enough! or it's/I'm finished.)

Two suffocated!

But treated for running tears

Were released, healthy?

(A news article about a chemical leak at a school had me in stitches.  While it's not funny that two people had their respiratory systems compromised, the English(?) that was used to describe the situation cracked me up. Uh, doesn't one die when suffocated?)

And just for the heck of it, one last poem about those darned files:

Stuff, stuff, stuff that file!

Pictures, reports, data too.

Proof we’ve done our jobs.