High School Drama

"One day I feel I'm on top of the world
And the next it's falling in on me
I can get back on
I can get back on
One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel,
And the next it's rolling over me
I can get back on
I can get back on"

                                                     (from "Far Cry" by Rush)

A couple of weeks ago I was told that I needed to change the textbooks for my classes.  At the beginning of the school year, I had been told to use the "special ed" textbooks.... now, I'm to be using the general ed textbooks.  I finally was able to come up with a time that worked with my classes and the textbook room, and today went down and switched out our textbooks.

When I went in to find the teachers editions, I found a goldmine.  Supplemental materials galore.  Even a supplemental guide for alternative assignments and activities for special education classes.  On top of all that, a daily lesson plan that goes with all the material.  Every day of the year, already outlined, all I have to do is get the stuff together and present it.

Say what?
All this has been sitting here since the beginning of the school year?
All the materials I have been asking for?  All the curriculum and lesson plans I could possibly want?
Overheads, worksheets, videos, CDs, OH MY!

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.  I have spent hours upon hours scouring the internet for lessons, in essence trying to re-invent the wheel.  I have asked no less than six people for some kind of outline, syllabus, or overview of how the general ed. English classes were supposed to go.  No one seemed to have any idea.  I have told people over and over and over and OVER again that I feel like I am starting from scratch, I have asked for help so many times I was starting to feel like a broken record.... that no one was hearing.

To know that the things I have been begging for over the last several months have just been sitting on a shelf collecting dust... I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

My life just became infinitely easier.... laugh.
All the wasted weeks floundering and wondering if I was doing it right... cry. 
Getting exactly what I wanted... laugh.
That no one remembered that everything I needed to be an English teacher was sitting right there in plain view... cry.
From this point forward, my students will most definitely be learning exactly what they are supposed to be learning, without my questioning my every lesson plan.... laugh.

I plan to spend the next six weeks organizing everything I have found into one cohesive program... modified for special ed. students.  In between homework and blog posts.... I might even work a little Dickens Fair in there.