Back On the Write Track

March was full of madness.

I only posted two pieces in March. I wanted to do more. I really did. But there was so much happening during March that writing on Medium became less and less a priority.

I wanted to focus on my art, my poetry, and job hunting. I’ve been working on my drawings and studying techniques on social media. I’ve also been building an art platform on Tik Tok. I‘ve gained almost 1200 followers in less than a month! And this is just my backup account. On my main account, I’m still trying to get to 6,000 followers. I just have to focus on my platform as I did on my backup account. I’m also thinking of doing other topic-specific Tik Tok accounts. I have so many interests and I want to see where they can take me.

My poetry has been going well. I took an online poetry class from Grub Street, a writing organization in Boston. The class has been great. The instructor is a published poet who provides lessons on structure and form. She also gives good feedback and critiques. I’ve learned a lot from her. It’s inspired me to learn even more about poetry and maybe even take an online fiction class.

As for job hunting, I’ve decided that teaching is no longer my cup of tea. My outside interests are a more interesting draw. I want to explore other areas. I still want to work in education but not as an educator. It’s too stressful, too demanding, and too disappointing. I’m tired of begging students to do the work. I’m frustrated by the lack of admin support. I don’t understand why parents aren’t more invested in their children’s education. And I’m tired of being evaluated unfairly. Observers want rigor but don’t care if the students are having fun and enjoying the activities. They just want the students ready for the MCAS. That’s all they care about — assessments.

So March was madness. I had students turning off my lights and throwing things into my classroom. I was struck by a wooden door jam and my students were hit by a granola bar. No respect. No consideration for peoples’ safety. I reported the incidents and eventually, the students stopped. It didn’t hurt for me to set up a booby trap, leaving a mixture of vaseline and glue stick on the side of the door closest to the light switch. If the students are going to aggravate me, I’m going to aggravate them.

It’s April and I want to get active again on Medium. I’m still getting followers and views of my previous essays. I’m glad my page wasn’t ignored. But I want to get my view back up and continue to work on my essay writing. I have plenty to write about from what happened in March. I want to get it down before I forget it all. Or before the April shenanigans begin.