Managing Chaos, Part 2

Had an interesting conversation last night with the Lead teacher at the ESL site that I volunteer teach at. It seems that the new person in charge of the program has no idea what she’s doing. Which is why we STILL don’t have completed rosters for our classes, or textbooks to pass out to our students. Now, I really hate using the textbook because it is rather hard to understand and I prefer to copy handouts and do more oral exercises with the class. The students prefer that too, since they get to work on their conversation and pronunciation skills. However, it does serve as a good lesson guideline for the students and gives them something at home to refer to, so not having the textbooks at this point is a huge pain-in-the-derriere. And also, not having completed rosters means that I have no idea who is really supposed to be in the class (and who has paid) and who is on the waiting list. I really don’t care, since I’m happy just to teach everyone who shows up and wants to learn, but it is bad for the organization in that they won’t have really good records when it comes time to report our monthly progress to the state offices.

I had actually thought about applying for the job of the coordinator of the whole ESL program when it was open, but figured that the pay would be beyond dreadful for the amount of hours you had to put in . . . and it turns out that I was correct about that. However, it sounds like the whole program is in upheaval at the moment, and I feel like someone needs to walk into the offices and knock some people around to get them to focus on what is needed right now.

So far, my ESL class this year is smaller than the one I taught in the summer, but 6-8 people is a very workable size for me to deal with. They still haven’t found a sub for me for Thursday nights, since I can’t do classes too nights a week for too long without burning out. I’ve given them a deadline of October 20 to find someone for that night – they HAVE to be able to find someone by then or else they are going to have one very unhappy long-term volunteer who may not re-up in the Spring . . . and they really can’t afford to lose any more volunteers or staff . . .

Sorry about the rant! I know, I need to be more Zen about this stuff . . .

. . . What other Random thoughts are there for today? . . .

Well, if you were a faithful watcher of Bravo’s Kathy Griffin show “on the D List,” it would have been no huge surprise to find out yesterday that she’s filed divorce from her husband of 4 years. He always seemed like he was just along for the ride anyway . . .

Just found out that my favorite local band, Eddie From Ohio (http://www.efohio.com/flash2.html), will be playing at the Birchmere (http://www.birchmere.com/index.cfm) for three dates in January. Yay! If you have not heard this band before, do give them a listen . . . they are kind of folk/rock with a fun twist. Also if you have never been to the Birchmere before, you must go at least ONCE . . . it is one of THE best places to see live music played in the DC area.

Promise to have better content tomorrow . . . I had quite a few meetings today . . .