Shoot Me Now!

Today was a half day for our kids.  This is the end of the term and the beginning of Fall Break.  The kids went to their first two blocks....we had a scheduled lockdown drill at 9:15 and then at 10:00 the dismissals of students began for the pep rally(cheerleaders at 10, dancers by 10:30, band by 11, football at 11 and then at 11:15 the seniors were called).  Tonight would be our last home game which makes this Senior night and a special pep rally.  We finished up everything at 12:15....I went to Trina's room to quickly eat my lunch...ordered by Lisa....and then head to the two hour torture time (inservice on Autism) at the Baptist Church....we were instructed to be in our seats ready to begin at 1.  The elementary teachers were dismissed at 11:30....they had an hour and a half for lunch....Jim Pearson school teachers were exempt because they were having Parent Conferences.....20 of our faculty members took a half day sick/personal leave to keep from having to go to the inservice. I was grumpy.  I have over 78 hours of the 24 we need....because we were encouraged to do online courses...which I did during the summer.....and STILL had to attend this training.  Believe me....I was ready to beg someone to shoot me.  So were the rest of us there.  I have never been so bored in all my life.  The kicker here was when the system director told us that when we took our inservice survey at the end of the year last year we had asked for this....I can assure you I DID NOT ask for this.  I asked for something fun and amusing.  I am ADD and believe me....my backside rules my brain.  My rump was numb after the first hour.  Where was the group activity?  Where was the question/answer period?  There was no analysis, summary, or evaluation here.  It was just plain B-O-R-I-N-G!  Come on!  The packet we were given was an eleven page copy of her powerpoint that she read to us word for word!  Don't read to me!  I am a good reader!  Everything we are taught as teachers (vary activities...you will only hold an audience for approx. 15 minutes...etc....this lady paid no attention too....and I paid very little attention to her.  Before she had been talking for thirty minutes I had already read the packet.  Somewhere during her presentation she made a passing comment about a bomb threat that had been phoned in during her first year of teaching....right in the middle of her PEPE evaluation....and I have to admit the thought passed through my head.  It was about that time Cassandra, sitting in the front of the room, laughed out loud and I wondered what she found so funny about this painful experience.....I found out at the football game tonight....someone in the room had texted her and told her to phone in a bomb threat.  Two hours of torture later...we were finally dismissed with the assurance from the speaker that she would be back again and again....GREAT!.....I can promise you that next time I will be the first to sign up to  take a sick day (cough cough)....I am feeling poorly coming on.  I still am grumpy and still don't understand why I had to be there...I don't need the hours....I already have mine....could I not have utilized my time in a much more productive manner?  I wish they had let the kids stay all day....and make us come back a day before them and put me through this fresh and rested.....but...oh no.....that is not how we do things....and nobody asked me.  I am just a lowly, bored out of my gourd, teacher...Just Shoot Me Now!