The first day of school had gone pretty well, but already on Monday night I was a bit worried about Tuesday's classes. Tuesday was the day that I was going to have my choir classes, and in addition to not having a class roster, or even any idea of what period my classes were, I was a little nervous about teaching choir. When I took the job it was with the understanding that I would have small Band and Choir classes, while my General Music classes would be big. That night Beki and I stayed up really late, she was helping get my General Music lesson ready, while I worked on what I would do with the choir kids. We got to bed late, and got up early, but I was as ready I was going to get.
Second period (my first period is my prep) turned out to be General Music, and it went better than I was expecting. I had figured out that my fifth period would also be General Music, which meant that my Choir classes would be around both sides of lunch. As I went to my performance classroom (I have 2 classrooms, one with desks and one without) I was met by a large number of students lined up at my door. If you remember I said that I was told that my choir classes were going to be small, so seeing 38 students at my door was a little unnerving. While I was shepherding the students into my class the Principal walked by. I mentioned to her that this was a lot more students than I thought were going to be in choir, and that we would need to talk about how we were going to make this work. (38 students in a beginning Middle School Choir is way too many if you ask me.)
I get the kids in and seated - I don't have a class roll because I can't get into the computer system yet, so I have no way of taking roll. I started to try and get them to sing with me, but they all just sat there and stared at me for a moment before resuming their private conversations. I was really confused, and fought with them for about 20 minutes before one of them told me that they had not signed up for choir, and did not know why they were there. As it turns out, almost all of them had no desire to be in choir. My class had become the dumping ground for students who needed a class! So now, because none of them were willing to sing, I have a class full of students that have to be baby sat for the next 50 minutes.
I quickly had to scramble and go get my lesson from General Music to see if I could get some control over my students. On my way back I was stopped by a staff member who had a parent with her that she wanted me to meet. As much as I know that teachers are supposed to be all about talking to parents, I was having a total classroom meltdown, so I kind of blew them off. It wasn't that I didn't care, it was that I needed to regain control before something got destroyed.
About 20 minutes later one of the Assistant Principals came in. I was kind of happy about this, as I thought that he would help me get things under control. (The way these students work is that if they don't want to be somewhere, they will become openly defiant and hostile.) Instead he simply stood there by the door for five minutes and then left. This just annoyed me more, but eventually I got the students all on task. With about 10 minutes left in class the Assistant Principal came back in and said that the Principal wanted to see me, and that another staff member would dismiss my class to lunch.
I thought that it was strange that the Principal wouldn't wait until my lunch break to talk to me about why I had a choir full of students who did not want to be in choir, but I figured that when you are the Principal you are busy and you see teachers when you can. I was pretty ticked off when I went into her office because babysitting a bunch of students is not what I had agreed to do. To me we needed to find a way to get those students who did not want to be there out, or I would have to see if I could get my old job back.
I was totally not prepared for what happened next. "Mr. Renberg," my Principal said, "I really don't want to have this conversation, but I had another staff member come to me with a concern that you smelled like alcohol." I was completely and utterly speechless. The asked if I had taken some cough medicine or mouthwash or something that would explain it. I told them that I don't drink, to which they asked, "Well, were you drinking last night?" "I do not drink," I replied, now realizing that we were not going to be discussing my choir classes, but instead they really thought that I had been drinking!
They left me in the office while they went to call the Central Office, so I was fully expecting them to come back with someone to give me a breath test or something, but when they came back an hour later, they didn't have anyone, so I figured that I would be going back to finish my classes. Nope. They started in on me again, asking me if I was on any medication or anything, to which I again told them no. The Principal then explained how not only had one staff member voiced a concern, but that the Administrator who had come in my room had also "smelled" something and noticed that my eyes were red and I was acting irritable. At this point, seeing as they still believed that I was drunk, I got a little frustrated and tried to firmly but calmly explain that I DON'T DRINK, I DON'T SMOKE, I DON'T EVEN DRINK COFFEE...I AM A TEETOTALING MORMON!!!!!!!
Still unconvinced of my soberness, they asked me how I had gotten to work that day - Beki actually had dropped me off because Owen had a dentist appointment that day - and how I was getting home. I told them that I was planning on taking the Metro to the station where the car was, and then driving home. When they heard me say the word car, they freaked out and wouldn't let me leave the school. (My Union Rep freaked out when I told him this. He wants to go after the Administration for violating my civil rights.) So I had to call Beki - fun phone call there - and have her come and get me. While I was waiting for Beki to get there, I had to be escorted by the Assistant Principal back to my room to get my stuff, but before I could go down there, they had to move all of my students out of my room, because since I was drunk I had to kept away from the children.
When Beki got there I was still sequestered in the Principal's office, so once she found me, I had to have her find the Principal to see if she could escort us out. In the end the Principal and the Assistant Principal found us - still in the office mind you - and they received the full brunt of my wife's furry. I think it was somewhere in the middle of being chewed up and down by my wife that the Principal started to realize that maybe I had been telling the truth the entire time. So while I was still sent home from work for being drunk, there was no official discipline taken, and my Principal just wants to pretend that the whole thing never happened.
Personally, as long as my choir problem gets sorted out, I will think that the whole episode is pretty funny. As my sister Karen put it, of all of my siblings, I am the first one to actually be sent home from work for being drunk!
They left me in the office while they went to call the Central Office, so I was fully expecting them to come back with someone to give me a breath test or something, but when they came back an hour later, they didn't have anyone, so I figured that I would be going back to finish my classes. Nope. They started in on me again, asking me if I was on any medication or anything, to which I again told them no. The Principal then explained how not only had one staff member voiced a concern, but that the Administrator who had come in my room had also "smelled" something and noticed that my eyes were red and I was acting irritable. At this point, seeing as they still believed that I was drunk, I got a little frustrated and tried to firmly but calmly explain that I DON'T DRINK, I DON'T SMOKE, I DON'T EVEN DRINK COFFEE...I AM A TEETOTALING MORMON!!!!!!!
Still unconvinced of my soberness, they asked me how I had gotten to work that day - Beki actually had dropped me off because Owen had a dentist appointment that day - and how I was getting home. I told them that I was planning on taking the Metro to the station where the car was, and then driving home. When they heard me say the word car, they freaked out and wouldn't let me leave the school. (My Union Rep freaked out when I told him this. He wants to go after the Administration for violating my civil rights.) So I had to call Beki - fun phone call there - and have her come and get me. While I was waiting for Beki to get there, I had to be escorted by the Assistant Principal back to my room to get my stuff, but before I could go down there, they had to move all of my students out of my room, because since I was drunk I had to kept away from the children.
When Beki got there I was still sequestered in the Principal's office, so once she found me, I had to have her find the Principal to see if she could escort us out. In the end the Principal and the Assistant Principal found us - still in the office mind you - and they received the full brunt of my wife's furry. I think it was somewhere in the middle of being chewed up and down by my wife that the Principal started to realize that maybe I had been telling the truth the entire time. So while I was still sent home from work for being drunk, there was no official discipline taken, and my Principal just wants to pretend that the whole thing never happened.
Personally, as long as my choir problem gets sorted out, I will think that the whole episode is pretty funny. As my sister Karen put it, of all of my siblings, I am the first one to actually be sent home from work for being drunk!
3 comments:
Well - at least you'll always have the best work story to tell people... right?!?!?
I agree with Carisa, this work story takes the cake, especially for those of us who know you! Soooo ridiculous! I would have demanded a breath test and wouldn't have left until I got one. I can just imagine the conversation you had with Beki on the phone that day, LOL!
The phone conversation was tense to say the least. Since it took me half an hour to drive down there, I spent most of the time doing breathing exercises so that by the time I got their my ire was under control - mostly. Otherwise, it could have a lot worse. I just hope that is not a lot of fall out on this one, but I doubt it.
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