::smoke coming out of my ears::
Today's meetings with the consultant angered me like I have never been before at school. I now know why many teachers are bitter whiners.
1. I am educated in teaching ESL. I know all about the most current methodologies, pedagogies, and philosophies. In other words, I'm prepared for nothing.
2. We (the ESL department) are bombarded on a daily basis with scheduling changes, curriculum changes, and district mandates that impact the way we teach.
3. We are also constantly reinformed about the manner in which we conduct our classes and adhere to the district curriculum.
4. I can never get in contact with the grade-level teachers (normal classroom teachers) because they fly out the door at 4pm and apparently cannot follow my email requests.
5. Now, the office is asking me to call Spanish speaking parents and explain district forms that were sent home. I realize that we don't have a translator on call, but I am not a replacement. It's embarassing the mistakes that I sometimes make; it's also unprofessional and disrespectful. So tonight I'm going to write several explanatory schpiels to use when I call these parents.
6. While it's a great idea, I am running out of planning time with all of the study group meetings we have. I'm studying vocabulary and comprehension in a once a week meeting and I have articles to read for homework.

I'm really tempted to hire someone to help me organize all of the input I'm receiving. There is no way that a human could address the needs of the district, the classroom teachers, the government, and, of course, the students at one time. I'm starting to have constant guilt pangs because I'm not integrating the hell out of my lessons. I mean, it should start from the content, but also be meaningful; it should have cultural relevance and technological aspects; I should model, allow for guided instruction, then follow-up with independent practice. I need to teach meaningful words and reading strategies, plus speaking, reading and writing practices. Oh, did I mention I only see each student for 25 minutes a day?!!