Too little too late

All year, we have written students up for infractions (cussing, walking out of class, dress code violations, you name it) and all year, nothing has happened. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

So the principal asks teachers for their opinion of what is happening at the school and we tell him the kids are running it and the administrators are not backing us up.

And what happens next? Nada. Zip. Zilch.

So the state comes in to observe, comments on how there is no dress code, and now he is enforcing it. Now he is in the hall. Now he is noticing the kids when they walk past him.

Anyone want to bet how long this lasts?

Six Word Saturday

You feel entitled. I don't agree.


For more Six Word Saturday participants, click here.

I was reading articles recently about the entitled generation. How do you respond to kids who say they need more time on a test or they will fail. (They have already had 2 hours for a 1 hour test).

Or that you didn't give them a problem exactly like this so it is your fault.

Or that they are satisfied with their grade (70, which is just passing) so they don't feel they have to do a required project.

These are seniors, some about to join the military. And the NCOs in various services will have their work cut out for them.

Vicious cycle

I have written that I feel isolated - which makes me stand off by myself - which makes me more isolated.

I noticed this week that I am feeling unappreciated - which makes me see slights where they may not have been meant but still sting. You know, being in a professional development and having every other teacher called Mr. This or Mrs. That - and I am called by my first name (and, no, this was not a person I am friends with - someone who has been here before and everyone else has the same relationship with them).

Having a special ed teacher mention he has taught with most of the people in the room - and he named every teacher he taught with except me.

And this is a vicious cycle - I am not looking for slights but yet I am. I withdraw, and no one pursues me, and I withdraw further.

I am feeling worthless - and yet I know my sense of worth comes from inside not outside.

Isolation

This year has been the most difficult that I have had to date. Most of it is the isolation.

I have friends - more outside my department than inside but that has been true for years. I just never get a chance to see and talk with them.

We have a schedule that actively discourages the teachers from communicating - I do not think it is an accident.

We have an administration that couldn't plan an escape from a paper bag. And couldn't communicate either their situation or their desire for help.

Add - that we have been a needs improvement school long enough that administrators (rather than seeing their own lack of planning and communication) think the solution is to target and get rid of teachers.

In a situation like that, it is better to be middle of the road with middle of the road classes and keep your head down.

If you chose the harder to teach, harder to pass students, their lack of progress must be due to your ineptitude not the fact that the kid they just assigned to your class (whom you have never met) is 18 with 6 credits. (You need 23 to graduate.) And the kid is not atypical.

So if you gear your lesson to help them pick up what they are missing as well as learn new - well, you are not expecting RIGOR and you are not being a proficient teacher.

And that is isolating as well.

I will find another position. My students will get the best that I can give them.

And the administration will be as clueless next year without me as they are this year.