Six Word Saturday

Dealing with a bully is difficult.



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I will survive since 1) I know where I stand with him (he has no use for me and sees no value in anything I do or say) and 2) I have less use for him since I think he is a bully and a blowhard.

He does entertain me in the meetings where he is wasting my time - I wait for the malaprops. I have an internal bet how many he will do. If he talks for an hour, there will be at least one. His personal best was five. It does keep me alert.

He has seen the light - in that someone introduced him to the EATS (essential question, activating strategy, teaching strategies and summarize) method of lesson planning/teaching. It isn't new but, by golly, if we follow this to the letter we will RISE AGAIN and meet AYP. Gimme that ole time religion!

One of my students, who actually is learning the way I teach, looked at me as I explained this program: "but kids don't learn the same way. Why would you try to teach everyone the same way?" Because the bully is looking for a formula. And there isn't one. (Telling mark: Waiting for Superman is on his desk. More telling: it is a library copy.}

I don't know if I can write about him as the habits of highly ineffective principals, not because he isn't one (because he is) and not because the original concept wasn't a brilliant one (because it was), but because I cannot wrap my head around the way he thinks or governs and really don't want to.

I may end up writing about what I would love to see in a principal instead. Because it isn't what is sitting in the front office.

I talk to myself. I come by it honestly, my dad has hysterical (to the people around him, anyway) conversations with himself where he takes both sides. It is how he prepares for arguments.

I found myself having a conversation with myself on the way to work yesterday (since I knew I was going to get chewed out - explaination follows). When I took a breath, a song came on the radio. Jesus take the wheel.

I will get through this.

Why I got chewed out: I struggled all last semester to get a pacing guide so that I could be at the same place as the other three people teaching the class I was teaching. I got it 8 weeks into school - at which time I was so freaking far behind that I did not really catch up. I skimmed the last two sections before the state test. My repeaters still improved their previous scores by 5%. Not outstanding, but an improvement. Especially when it was the first time I taught it.

I didn't get a pacing guide because the 2 teachers who could give it to me (high maintenance and dude) wouldn't give it to me. The 4th teacher got it when I did BECAUSE I GAVE IT TO HIM. (He is also teaching this for the first time).

I have never told this to Bully - why in the world would I? 1)It would be an excuse on my part (even though his minion sat in the meetings where I asked for it over and over and over and did nothing. He still would have said "why didn't you ask minion?" I asked high maintenance, dude, minion, the district, and another school - no one had a block pacing guide but high maintenance and dude - and they weren't sharing)

So, this semester in my year long class I am hitting those units I sped through. This means I am teaching it for the first time. I suck at pacing something the first time (Bully: another excuse) and the kids had run through the activity when he walked in to observe me that I was doing EATS(last 15 minutes of a 55 minute class). In other sections I go back to traditional books from 5 years ago and pull word problems for them to work (we have no books. Bully: See - another excuse) but I don't have books for this section. I finally met with dude (schedules. Bully: another excuse) 2 hours after the observation and got the work he has developed in (now) 3 times of teaching it.

So, I am slime. The kids really understand what we did in this section and should do well on the state test. But I am the worst teacher he has.

The sad thing is that he believes it. The really sad thing is that he has no idea who or what I am or that I am willing to document the abuse to the board of education. I am a list maker. I understand how to do reasonable statistics. And I have no use for him. And he has created the most hostile environment I have ever worked in.

I am woman. Hear me roar.

Wow - that was cathartic.