Shaddup Already!
2005-07-30
First major stress dream of the season
I had my first big teaching stress dream this afternoon. Normally I have them a lot more frequently. I had one a couple of weeks ago, but it was pretty tame, it did feature a horse, though. Hmmm.I used to have dreams before a college semester would start in which I forgot to go to class until the very last meeting. I went and everyone knew more than me. Then the stakes were raised by the prof telling me that I had to pass the final with 100% or I would fail the class.
Anyway, I awoke from this dream today convinced that my career was over.
It was the first day of school and I walked into my classroom--completely unprepared. Shortly after I got there, my students started to arrive. One of my students walked in with a cigarrette in her mouth. She was someone I had taught about 2 or 3 years ago and, in my dream, she was still in 6th grade.
I told her she couldn't smoke in the classroom. Then she said something defiant/disrespectful and I grabbed her by the shoulders and tried to pry the cigarrette out of her mouth. She grabbed my arm really tightly, so much that it hurt, and then she pushed me away.
There was another adult in the room, so I started shouting "Call security, get these kids out of here! You all, line up against the wall outside!"
The principal came, who was actually our last principal who I was burned by my first year teaching, so I don't trust him much. He asked what happened and I said I was just reaching for the cigarrette and she hit me. So much for my honesty.
Then the kids are all in their desks and I realize I haven't done anything I was supposed to do when they first came in. In homeroom on the first day they are supposed to write down their schedules and give them to the teacher to keep (because they consistently lose their schedules before they have them memorized). We also do a lot of informational stuff on the TV the first week of school. A big chunk of that on the first day is in homeroom. Okay, back to the dream.
So I hadn't had the students do anything. I had very little control over the room (a characteristic of all my teaching stress dreams), but I finally got to where I could speak and they could hear me. Then the bell rang.
I ignored the bell because, in real life, we do ignore it on the first day. I looked out the window that was on the door and noticed all the kids walking by and realized that I should probably release my students.
I walked over to the principal, who was still there, and asked if I was supposed to release the kids with the bell or were we supposed to be watching something on TV? He said, "It's okay, we've made a tape of it."
I asked my question again and again he told me there was a tape of it. Then he said, "I only came by because you complained that you had more than 12 students in your room and you thought you would be overcrowded."
I started arguing that I would never say that. 12 is a ridiculously low number for a class and I can certainly handle more than that. In the middle of me saying this, he walked away and out of my room.
Then another teacher came in and asked me what channel we were supposed to be watching for the announcements and stuff. That reminded me to check the TV and see if something was on.
So I went to the TV and couldn't get 52--the school's station. I couldn't understand it because I checked for channel 52 before I left school on Friday. Then I realized that I had been put in a different classroom. A portable classroom--again!
So now I had no TV, no idea what to do and nothing to occupy everyone's time. It was chaos.
Some more inconsequential stuff happened, but I only have a foggy memory of it.
I suspect I shall have a few more dreams between now and Monday morning.
