Teachers Unions
Cons:
3. It Rewards Laziness
“The teachers union works hard to ensure that its members are treated fairly and not fired unjustly that it can actually be a dual edge sword. Members are not encouraged to work harder because they know how hard it is to get fired. While most members will work to the best of their ability there are some that will take advantage of the protections that the union offers.”
Yesterday was the last department meeting of the year. The teachers are so busy complaining that the administration that they aren’t doing anything to better the school. I haven’t had a single meeting that discussed curriculum or problems with the students or what we can do to help the kids.
At my old district, no one complained about the administration, but I know most people didn’t particularly like the administration. You aren’t supposed to love your boss, you’re supposed to respect your boss and do what they say. If they do something illegal, you can call them out on it I GUESS but overall, you don’t have much say in the matter. Our entire administration here has been changed within the last 3 years, and there is a purpose to that. My guess is that it is to remove laziness.
If the biggest problem you have a work is that you don’t like your boss, who cares. I’ll take that any day over half the student body failing last year.
Happy 7 Year Anniversary!
Ok I’ve officially reached 7 years of having this constant headache, and I literally have the same sinus infection right now that started the whole thing in the first place. Last time they started me off with steroids, then pain killers, then more pain killers, then nothing, then antidepressants, then anti-seizure meds, and anyway. This time it’s starting with antibiotics and some strong ibuprofen and it makes me wonder if when this happened last time they shouldn’t have put me on steroids. My current doctor said that when I have the sinus infection last time that it permanently damaged my sinus, which really worries me because this is the opposite side of my face now. Anyway, hopefully this goes away in the next few days or else I will look like a chipmunk forever.
Super Senior
Yesterday one of my hardest working students from the ESL class was taken out of the class. The district office said that she could not have the status of a super senior next year because she is 18 and that she has to finish her credits in summer school. She explained to me, “I have have good grades. I try hard in every class. They will not let me walk at graduation. Why?” My heart broke a little. She continued to work through the rest of class despite it being her last day. When the bell rang she said, “It was very nice to meet you Miss Jones. I will miss this class” and left.
Also, today I found out that I am rehired for the next school year. For the past several months I have been stressing over scheduling a second evaluation. Today I received an e-mail asking me to come sign some papers– essentially they decided (or forgot) to have a second evaluation for me. It makes me realize that last year when I was fired it probably didn’t have much to do with me being a ‘bad teacher’ and more to do with the fact that my previous district had a lot more money and therefore their choice of applicants. My current district does not have that privilege and therefore is scrambling to make their employees feel more welcome and needs to keep as many people as possible because many people (especially within my department) are going to be retiring within the next 5 years. It’s a good thing and a bad things for me. I’d like to think that I have been rehired because my first evaluation went so well, which it did, but it’s really not the case.
slander
Yesterday we had our department meeting to talk about curriculum for next year and I watched multiple members of my staff be blatantly disrespectful to our boss. Our boss has very little control over our situation and essentially acts as a liaison to compile our thoughts and present them to the district. There were 20 or so people present including the principal of another school who I watched mouth to her college, “all they do it complain.” It makes me sad that these are the people who were chosen to represent me and I don’t want their views to be a reflection of my teaching philosophies or how I handle situations in general. I interjected at one point and said something that supported both of the extremes, and my department chair still used it as an example to back up what he had said earlier. At the beginning of the year I thought that they were being honest, but I heard several lies during the meeting– namely that we waste collaboration time as a school and should be given that time as a department instead. I with the administration would sit in on our department meetings like at our old school so we would be held accountable for using the time wisely. My student teacher stopped attending the department meetings because they are so pointless. Also one of the teachers said he refused to have a release day because it would be a disservice to the students to miss a day a class, but I know that he has taken off multiple Fridays for ‘personal reasons’ and had my student teacher show movies to his classes. When we did have an opportunity to collaborate for a day we literally spent it grading and didn’t speak to one another. I asked several of the staff members to show me old tests or to share materials with me and all that I got was 2 finals– both of which that had obviously printed off the internet. Anyway, now my dilemma is should I stay at the school despite not liking my department? I have almost no interaction with them and I love the kids and the administration. I hate that my department gossips so much and has told me about the personal lives of the administration. Hopefully what I can take from this is to never slander someone’s name, especially a coworker/boss. Very unprofessional and immature.
Lovestruck
“Miss Jones, have you ever been love struck?”
“…. why yes, I believe that’s how I feel about math Omid”
“No Miss Jones, what I mean is, I’m in love again.”
“…again?”
“It all began in the 4th grade…”
These sophomore boys are hilarious. I’ve watched their music taste from grunge to love songs by Bieber and Justin Timberlake in the span of 2 weeks.
Spell check
In high school one of my most creative friends explained his learning disability to me. He held out his thumb and fore-finger in the shape of a backwards L then flipped it right to a L then down into a 7 and finally into a backwards 7. He said, “They used to all look the same.”
Dyslexia is something that has always been fascinating for me to analyze and something that I loved researching in college courses and during professional development. I always take a special interest in students who have a learning disability and try my best to accommodate their needs. All year I have been collecting evident for a freshman boy, Darwin in my 6th period class. Since the first week of school I’ve been photocopying his work randomly to build a case for him with the goal of him being assessed for a disability and offered extended time on tests. He tasks about 2-3 times as long as an average student and spends a lot of time writing and rewriting and erasing and turning the page around etc, but at the end, he usually comes out with an excellent grade.
I asked his math and science teacher and both submitted evidence of him having conceptual misunderstanding on his class work as well as reading aloud and losing letters at the end of words. It’s not difficult to find mistakes, he makes them consistently and daily.
Yesterday, his English teacher and I got tired of waiting for the counselor to e-mail us about having an SST for him and went to her office in person to question it. She said the meeting had been held without us 2 months ago and that they had recommended tutoring and spellcheck for him. End of story. So we walked over to the Vice Principal and asked why we hadn’t been invited and if we could request another meeting. Essentially she said that it was not required for us to be present and no. His test scores are too high for him to be assess and the school does not have money to accommodate.
I’m mad for several reasons about this, but mainly that he’s going to score very poorly on any standardized test with a time constraint and that once he gets to college, it will be nearly impossible for him to be classified as dyslexic by the school.
We took a look at his middle school grades and literally they are either As or Fs. The VP seemed to think this was odd but said that his STAR results were “proficient.” The class of mine that he is failing is Math 1. He is also failing English 1 right now. In the 8th grade he received As in both of those courses.
My theory, is that Darwin either had teachers who allowed him to turn everything in late or simply passed him along. He’s extremely polite, his parents both went to grad school and he speaks only English. He’s so polite that he will stay after class cleaning up other students’ messes and thank me every day for what he has been taught. He’s trying much harder than other students.
The other reason I’m mad is that if I contact the parents now, it undermines my boss. If I was tenured, I would do it.
Anyway. My high school friend with dyslexia (and ADHD) was assessed at an early age and was taught strategies to recognize when he is prone to misinterpret. Nice that he went to a school with more money. He graduates from medical school this year.