School Days...
Those who have known me for awhile know I haven't had the best of happenings going on there as of the last 2 years.
I am, evidently, not the only teacher having difficulty changing subject and getting a new job. The history teacher on my team has applied repeatedly to be a PE coach. Every year he is denied. This year he applied, AGAIN, and was denied AGAIN. Why? Because we have a classroom teacher in the district who SUCKS, and he also applied for the position. Of course the bad teacher got the job. You suck at your job, you get to get your way.
Parents contact the district to tell them you have made more progress with their child in 1 year than the child has made in the previous 7 years, you get in trouble for week-late paperwork. Because, as they will tell you, the paperwork is as important as the kids. Seriously.
Charming.
Oh, and hiring someone who is a bad teacher and hates his job and doesn't grade the students' work will win out if he can coach football. No lie!
My classroom I am moving into is incredibly small--and an interior room with no natural light. I walked into it yesterday to start unpacking, and broke down crying. Really. There were so many boxes, there was barely room for them--piled up over 5 feet--all of my desks pushed to the edges of the room. Not only that, they didn't bring over my personal 2 drawer file cabinet or my stepladder. The super doesn't want anything that isn't brand new. I tried to explain to my principal that it was mine, and they had no right (and no key for it) to keep it in the old building and that it is filled with my person classroom belongings. If I can't have it there, they were very low-class to not inform me or at least bring it to the new school and then tell me I would have to take it elsewhere. He talked to the super who told him I could personally pick it up from the old school, but I would have to put it in our storage closet. It is not allowed in my room. The principal said he would pick it up for me and bring it to school. (He thinks of me in a fatherly way. He always does his best, but as a new principal, he is very stressed, too.)
This room is so un-user friendly, I could pull out my hair. I have one dry-erase board, one 1/4 size bulletin board, and all of the cabinetry is wood, so I can't even hang anything from them using magnets, or anything! I am already in trouble for using double-stick tape on the walls. And the mirror inside my coat closet is to high up to be in my line of vision. Really, I can only check to make sure my hairline hasn't moved. I know I will get in trouble when I take it down and move it down remount it. Oh no! Screw holes on the inside of a door we cannot see!!!
Our science teacher said to me, "Oh, Bethie (she really does call me Bethie, BTW)I wish I could tell you that it will get better, but that room will always be too small. That can't be fixed." She then tried to console me by saying at least I had really nice student desks, at which time I wailed, "We all have the same desks! That isn't a selling point!"
I did decide that the only positive point I have is that since it is an interior room, should the AC or heat go out in my room in the brand new building, at least I will suffer less because I am insulated with the other rooms.
And as bad as it may be for me, it is 10 times worse for our Educable Mentally Handicapped teacher (retarded students) because she is in her room all day, where as I am only in mine in the afternoon. Also, she used to have a functional curriculum, meaning cooking, job training, etc. She had a microwave, mini-fridge, toaster-over, time clock, sink, and other things that help the kids get prepared for real-world living. Her room is the same size as mine, and I really, really have no clue what she is going to do. The storage closet is already half full with our special ed. materials that won't fit in our rooms.
My next 2 weeks are going to FLY, and I am just dreading it!
I am looking for my bright side to come any day now! I need something positive and delightful to happen soon. VERY soon!
I am, evidently, not the only teacher having difficulty changing subject and getting a new job. The history teacher on my team has applied repeatedly to be a PE coach. Every year he is denied. This year he applied, AGAIN, and was denied AGAIN. Why? Because we have a classroom teacher in the district who SUCKS, and he also applied for the position. Of course the bad teacher got the job. You suck at your job, you get to get your way.
Parents contact the district to tell them you have made more progress with their child in 1 year than the child has made in the previous 7 years, you get in trouble for week-late paperwork. Because, as they will tell you, the paperwork is as important as the kids. Seriously.
Charming.
Oh, and hiring someone who is a bad teacher and hates his job and doesn't grade the students' work will win out if he can coach football. No lie!
My classroom I am moving into is incredibly small--and an interior room with no natural light. I walked into it yesterday to start unpacking, and broke down crying. Really. There were so many boxes, there was barely room for them--piled up over 5 feet--all of my desks pushed to the edges of the room. Not only that, they didn't bring over my personal 2 drawer file cabinet or my stepladder. The super doesn't want anything that isn't brand new. I tried to explain to my principal that it was mine, and they had no right (and no key for it) to keep it in the old building and that it is filled with my person classroom belongings. If I can't have it there, they were very low-class to not inform me or at least bring it to the new school and then tell me I would have to take it elsewhere. He talked to the super who told him I could personally pick it up from the old school, but I would have to put it in our storage closet. It is not allowed in my room. The principal said he would pick it up for me and bring it to school. (He thinks of me in a fatherly way. He always does his best, but as a new principal, he is very stressed, too.)
This room is so un-user friendly, I could pull out my hair. I have one dry-erase board, one 1/4 size bulletin board, and all of the cabinetry is wood, so I can't even hang anything from them using magnets, or anything! I am already in trouble for using double-stick tape on the walls. And the mirror inside my coat closet is to high up to be in my line of vision. Really, I can only check to make sure my hairline hasn't moved. I know I will get in trouble when I take it down and move it down remount it. Oh no! Screw holes on the inside of a door we cannot see!!!
Our science teacher said to me, "Oh, Bethie (she really does call me Bethie, BTW)I wish I could tell you that it will get better, but that room will always be too small. That can't be fixed." She then tried to console me by saying at least I had really nice student desks, at which time I wailed, "We all have the same desks! That isn't a selling point!"
I did decide that the only positive point I have is that since it is an interior room, should the AC or heat go out in my room in the brand new building, at least I will suffer less because I am insulated with the other rooms.
And as bad as it may be for me, it is 10 times worse for our Educable Mentally Handicapped teacher (retarded students) because she is in her room all day, where as I am only in mine in the afternoon. Also, she used to have a functional curriculum, meaning cooking, job training, etc. She had a microwave, mini-fridge, toaster-over, time clock, sink, and other things that help the kids get prepared for real-world living. Her room is the same size as mine, and I really, really have no clue what she is going to do. The storage closet is already half full with our special ed. materials that won't fit in our rooms.
My next 2 weeks are going to FLY, and I am just dreading it!
I am looking for my bright side to come any day now! I need something positive and delightful to happen soon. VERY soon!
posted by Beth at
7:11 PM
2 Comments:
The bright side will be when you see how happy YOU will make the kids. Not the classroom, that is too small...but YOU and your charm and wit.
You remind me of the type of person that can always make the best out of a bad situation and this won't be any different.
Hey, the a**hole won't be here this year, right?
I know what you mean about doing too good of a job....I was not promoted at my last job and was told that they wouldn't be able to find someone else to do my job...in other words, no one wants to deal with the crap.
Same thing this year...our whole job category was re-evaluated and was increased in the pay scale. So anyone that wasn't at the starting wage, was bumped up. But because I was above that wage I only received 33% of the increase. But was told that I would still get a yearly eval in June and the other 'new' people that were given the 100% of the increase aren't able to get a yearly raise. Well, when it can time for the yearly raises, I got a raise that gave me the same amount of money that the other ones got....how fair is that?
Beth, Eeyore (remember her) got the same increase that I got this year...where is that fair?
By
Anonymous, at 3:12 PM
Eeyore!!! Now that is a blast from the past!
I know the group coming up wasn't well liked by the 6th and 7th grade teachers who had them before...but I also tend to like the kids no one else appreciates.
You are totally right, and ultimately, it will be about the kids...but it is hard to get psyched when they are the unknown, and what is known ain't good!
By
Beth, at 5:30 PM
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