When I was in junior high, I often times found myself in situations that I didn't want to be in. Luckily, I had my mom. She would ALWAYS let us use her as an excuse. If we didn't want to do something, we could say, "I'm sorry. My mom said I couldn't go." If I called her, I would always use our "secret" code: "Hey mama!" I never called her that. It was always "mom" until it was something I wanted to say no to. If some one called my house, it was "Hey mama..." She ALWAYS played the part, and let us play ours.
However, now that safety net is gone. My mom passed away in 2019, and I am an adult. But sometimes, I feel that my voice isn't heard, so why speak up.
There is a situation at the school that I am at that is stressing me out. It's the end of the year and I am trying to get done what I need to get done. There is one more unit in my math curriculum that will bridge the gap between my sixth grade math curriculum and what the district has planned for the kids. When the kids go to junior high, they'll basically skip 7th grade math and jump into 8th grade math. While that's not a HUGE problem, we still need to go over some concepts that needed more groundwork before I introduced it.
Plus, the end of year is always packed with band and orchestra field trips, STUCO elections for next year, sixth grade field trip, graduation, etc. So even though I had three weeks left after the state test, I don't have 21 full days. We also didn't have a Career Day today, so I'm having both of my kids come and speak to my math classes.
But the scenario in which I wish I had a school mom has to do with the annual kickball game (students vs. staff). Apparently, my view isn't a popular one: It is what it is. If the kids don't do well, they don't do well. If they do, then fine. I've worked at schools where during certain years, the kickball games are awesome because the class is somewhat athletic. While during others, it's not because the kids truly don't care. But it seems that here, it doesn't matter because they want to take class time to practice. I don't, but it doesn't seem to matter. When I mention that I have a lesson to get through, I get looks like, "You're serious? You have an actual lesson?" Why is that a bad thing? Yes, I do have a lesson. And even if I didn't, I wouldn't feel comfortable taking out kids who won't want to play anyway and forcing them to practice, "just in case".
We had an email from our administration saying when we could take extra time, but that was quickly responded to with "We are going to do it at 2:30 on this day, this day, and this day because we have EOY MAP testing." But after that, no asking, just doing. To me, (based off of the previous campuses, having my administration degree, and also having someone who was a principal at one point), you just don't do that. You respect your admin and do what they ask you to do.
That was the closest to having a person who would say no for me to help keep the peace.
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