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Category Archives: Meetings
Staff Development Reverse Psychology
From Sarah over on Confessions. Last week, the principal told us we had a meeting after school about implementing Writer’s Workshop in our classrooms.We all dragged ourselves there despite our stress.But then a funny thing happened. The principal announced at … Continue reading
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a different kind of day
From Sarah over on Confessions. We have an all-day professional development meeting today, so that means no kids!!I kind of relish these days as a welcome break from routine. I’ll be honest though… I usually don’t look forward to the … Continue reading
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that’ll teach me to be optimistic
From Sarah over on Confessions. One of the summer’s necessary evils is Teacher Professional Development. In my district, you have to do 14 hours of it – 2 days over the summer (this is in addition to the week-long professional … Continue reading
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who are you and what have you done with our principal?
From Sarah over on Confessions. Last Monday, the principal announced that instead of the professional development we were all supposed to have on Friday afternoon, we were going to do a “team building activity.”Cue the fear.I had visions of rock … Continue reading
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it’s funny because it’s true
My father-in-law is a high school teacher and he passed along this video to me. If you’ve EVER been a teacher or if you’ve ever had to deal with less-than-competent administration, then you will find this video hilarious! I promise it’s worth five minu… Continue reading
Posted in Incompetence, Meetings, teaching
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not the kind of question you ask out loud
It has become the norm, I think, for schools around the nation to require their teachers to submit their lesson plans at least one week ahead of time. I’m not really sure why — none of the three schools I’ve worked at has ever explained the purpose. To make sure we’re doing our job? To torture us? In case there’s a substitute teacher? Probably just for liability’s sake, I imagine.
So here’s my question: if the administration is going to expect us to be Prepared Ahead of Time, shouldn’t they also be held to the same standard?
We had this past Friday off for a glorious three day weekend. But on Thursday morning, we all got a note in our mailboxes: “On Monday, Oct. 4, 2010, we will have a half-day meeting to ramp up the rigor in our Reading/Language Arts curriculum. You will meet from 8:00 to 11:00 in room 103.”
Whaa………? This came as a total surprise to all of us: it wasn’t on the calendar. So… we then had to frantically put together a whole morning’s worth of sub plans and we only had ONE DAY to do so.
I wasn’t the only one who thought this was unprofessional. Lots of other teachers were upset. It didn’t matter though. Ultimately, we all made our plans and showed up to the meeting.
It didn’t stop me from feeling resentful, though.
Posted in Gripe, Meetings, School Policy
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fake it till you make it, right?
I had an all-day training at the school district this past Saturday. Before you go feeling all sorry for me, you should know that I opted to take this mandatory training on a weekend so that I could have the entire week of Thanksgiving off (that Monday and Tuesday are professional development days – which you have to go to unless you got in your hours during the summer or the weekends).
So future Sarah will be very pleased.
But Saturday Sarah was pretty ticked off. Especially when I got to the training (on behavior management) and realized that it was going to be a waste of time. The presenter was saying things that were painstakingly obvious and common sense as if they were GROUNDBREAKING NEWS!!!
At one point, I considered raising my hand and asking if I could be excused from this training on account of I Went to College.
But I didn’t have the guts.
Finally…. fifteen minutes before the seven hours were up, I heard something useful. I’ll save that for a later post because I suspect that this piece of behavior management could be useful to parents too.
I did want to share this video, however. I’m sure you’re one of the four million plus people who have already seen this, but if you haven’t, you’re in for a treat!
I think every once in while, I should stand in front of the mirror and chant:
“I love my school!”
“I love my district!”
“I love my trainings!”
“I love my meetings!”
“I love my paperwork!”
at least I didn’t get a spanking this time
One of my mom’s favorite stories about me from when I was little was the time that I was “back-talking” in the car. She was so upset, she pulled over to give me a swat. When she finished, she asked me: “Do you know why you got a spanking?” “Yes,” I said tearfully, “because I was talking backwards!”
It’s one thing to talk back to your mother, but it’s another thing to talk back to a security officer.
Like yesterday. I had to go downtown for a training. Unfortunately, each of our district’s various buildings are all in really bad parts of town. You know, the part of town where it’s not unusual to see shady looking characters drinking out of a paper bag, or the occasional drug deal go down.
Also? Parking is tricky…. especially when you have two GIANT crates of very heavy confidential folders you’ve been asked by your supervisor to drop by. So I decided to park in the closest lot, the one that I think is reserved for all the supervisors. I laboriously lugged up one crate of folders.
As I was carrying the second load, OBVIOUSLY struggling with each step and with each door, the security officer in the building stops me.
“Where did you park?” she demands. “Because if you parked in that lot over there, you’re not supposed to.”
And… I kinda snapped at her.
“LOOK! The only reason I parked over there was because I had to lug two huge crates up to the fifth floor. I’ll move my car when I’m good and ready!”
In my defense, though, I was in the middle of trying to juggle fifty pounds of paper, navigate around the crazies outside, and open the door without using my hands. I was a little too busy to be polite, uniform or not.
Excuse me while I gloat
**Note: to fully appreciate this post, make sure you’ve read the one below it first!
Today, I felt fully supported (and triumphant!) as my principal and the head of the entire deaf education department sat behind closed doors to have a little chat with my two visitors from yesterday.
After ninety minutes of discussion, I was called in to join the meeting. First, our special education compliance supervisor apologized to me. Then, the behavior specialist apologized to me. (And also went on about how good their intentions were, blah blah). Oh, how nice it feels to be on the receiving end of brown-nosing!
I only have one thing to say about this whole situation, and Nelson sums it up best:
Posted in Incompetence, Meetings
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Number 5 has not been ruled out
What do you do when your behavior specialist and your special education compliance supervisor pay you an unexpected visit? What do you do when they pull you out of your classroom WHILE YOU’RE TEACHING and demand to meet right then and there? What do you do when they yell at you and personally attack you for 46 minutes (yes, I kept track)? What do you do when your behavior specialist twists facts around to make you look bad? What do you do when your special education compliance supervisor questions your training? What do you do when two “superiors” who LEGALLY have no say in a certain matter (since they are non-voting members of the IEP team) try to exert their will?
Well… when they l left and I had finally caught my breath and picked my jaw up off the floor, I was faced with a few options:
- Call the superintendent and TELL ON THOSE MEANIES!
- Throw something breakable.
- File a grievance.
- Pout.
- Drown out the injustice in ice cream.
- Find reassurance from my awesome colleagues that I don’t deserve to be bullied.
- Find their cars and slash their tires.
- Feel smug knowing that I’m in the right and they can’t do anything about the IEP team’s decision.
What I actually did was send both of these bullies an email (and cc’d my principal):
Hello,If you need to meet with me again at any time in the future, I will be happy to do so when you have scheduled an appointment, and with an administrator present.
Thank you.
It’s unfortunate, really, that I’m a professional teacher (and a Christian one, at that!) and couldn’t really do number 7. But I still might do number 3.
Posted in Incompetence, Meetings, Stress Oh Yes
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