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Re-Assignment
Jun. 5th, 2013 02:27 amSo in addition to dealing with Mom's stroke, my principal called me in on 5/27 to tell me that despite another ENG teacher resigning, she still had to let another one go and I was that teacher. She claims that because of my lack of seniority and the fact that I'm not a coach were factors in my reassignment. BUT...there is one other teacher who had been hired after me. A couple of people have asked if I plan to get the union involved, but I won't because it can get messy and while I may win the battle to stay, I'll lose the war because my principal will really micromanage and nitpick me in retaliation. A little slip-up can lead to a severe punishment.
I took the news badly. I cried just about everyday at work till school let out for summer. The kids saw me, and my co-workers saw me bawl. I couldn't even compose myself to go to the first thirty mins. of a going away party for myself and the other guy who resigned.
The principal got pissed as hell with me because on the last three days she wanted teachers to be "doing meaningful instruction." With all of the shit with Mom's stroke, I shut down for the year and since the kids are pretty good, I told them to use the rest of the week as a study hall. Well the principal peeked through my door window and got pissed that the students were on their phones and playing cards. And she had the balls to drag my supervisor into it and had her send me an email pretty much repeating what she had said about meaningful instruction. I lied and placated my super and handed out old photocopies telling the kids to look busy. I even said, "I'm outta here anyway." What a goddamn hypocrite. This woman snaps at me for this little fuck up while she comes into work late and has dragged morale among students and teachers alike to hell from her poor showmanship-wannabe attitude. She is not Steve Jobs of academia and this school does not need this sort of gimmick. We need a strong, competent, honest, and realistic leader. These problems never existed with the first two principals before she came along.
A good chunk of the students were very supportive when I told them about my transfer. When they gave me cards and told me thank you for being a good teacher, it made me cry. A chunk of my irritation also came from the fact that I basically feel worthless because I do shit for them like swapping out the original final exam that was supposed to be a typed report for a text and image collage analysis of what we read at the end or buying Evelyn the SAT prep book and voc. flash cards to help her out with her testing since she was not in the GT pool that gave the same materials to the kids. Instead, I'm expendable because I care more about academics than the kids' abilities to chase a ball on a field.
And when I was told about the transfer, the principal said, "Hillary will be going with you." (Hillary is my history dept. foil). It seemed more like the way a mom tries to placate a disgruntled kid by telling him that after church they'll go to McDonald's for lunch. Hell, I have a hunch that this was arranged so that both of us go to the new school together since we're counterparts of each other.
I'm taking my sweet time clearing out my room. I'm tired emotionally. I can drag my carcass out of my rancid-smelling bedsheets, but I'm falling asleep in the rehab center visiting my mom by late afternoon. I've got a former student from a couple of years ago helping me move on Thursday.
Deep down, I almost want to really focus on getting the test scores up at my new campus. Not so much to prove my worth, but because I want to make my old boss suffer more by thrashing her ass and getting her in trouble for having inferior test scores. I want to competitively tear her a new one, anything to keep her from looking good with the super intendent and his various secondary-education underlings.
Despite that colonic scrape, I still loved this school. The kids are all right. There were no heinous behavior incidents this year and the campus is relatively safe and clean. Or at least my kids were. My co-workers were decent folk. Hell, after word spread that I was leaving, one teacher who I suspected was annoyed with me surprised me by saying that she'd miss me. The special-ed teacher that I worked with last year when I had mixed mainstream and sped kids even confided in me that the students did better when I taught them. I will miss most of my co-workers, my friends, and my students.
I took the news badly. I cried just about everyday at work till school let out for summer. The kids saw me, and my co-workers saw me bawl. I couldn't even compose myself to go to the first thirty mins. of a going away party for myself and the other guy who resigned.
The principal got pissed as hell with me because on the last three days she wanted teachers to be "doing meaningful instruction." With all of the shit with Mom's stroke, I shut down for the year and since the kids are pretty good, I told them to use the rest of the week as a study hall. Well the principal peeked through my door window and got pissed that the students were on their phones and playing cards. And she had the balls to drag my supervisor into it and had her send me an email pretty much repeating what she had said about meaningful instruction. I lied and placated my super and handed out old photocopies telling the kids to look busy. I even said, "I'm outta here anyway." What a goddamn hypocrite. This woman snaps at me for this little fuck up while she comes into work late and has dragged morale among students and teachers alike to hell from her poor showmanship-wannabe attitude. She is not Steve Jobs of academia and this school does not need this sort of gimmick. We need a strong, competent, honest, and realistic leader. These problems never existed with the first two principals before she came along.
A good chunk of the students were very supportive when I told them about my transfer. When they gave me cards and told me thank you for being a good teacher, it made me cry. A chunk of my irritation also came from the fact that I basically feel worthless because I do shit for them like swapping out the original final exam that was supposed to be a typed report for a text and image collage analysis of what we read at the end or buying Evelyn the SAT prep book and voc. flash cards to help her out with her testing since she was not in the GT pool that gave the same materials to the kids. Instead, I'm expendable because I care more about academics than the kids' abilities to chase a ball on a field.
And when I was told about the transfer, the principal said, "Hillary will be going with you." (Hillary is my history dept. foil). It seemed more like the way a mom tries to placate a disgruntled kid by telling him that after church they'll go to McDonald's for lunch. Hell, I have a hunch that this was arranged so that both of us go to the new school together since we're counterparts of each other.
I'm taking my sweet time clearing out my room. I'm tired emotionally. I can drag my carcass out of my rancid-smelling bedsheets, but I'm falling asleep in the rehab center visiting my mom by late afternoon. I've got a former student from a couple of years ago helping me move on Thursday.
Deep down, I almost want to really focus on getting the test scores up at my new campus. Not so much to prove my worth, but because I want to make my old boss suffer more by thrashing her ass and getting her in trouble for having inferior test scores. I want to competitively tear her a new one, anything to keep her from looking good with the super intendent and his various secondary-education underlings.
Despite that colonic scrape, I still loved this school. The kids are all right. There were no heinous behavior incidents this year and the campus is relatively safe and clean. Or at least my kids were. My co-workers were decent folk. Hell, after word spread that I was leaving, one teacher who I suspected was annoyed with me surprised me by saying that she'd miss me. The special-ed teacher that I worked with last year when I had mixed mainstream and sped kids even confided in me that the students did better when I taught them. I will miss most of my co-workers, my friends, and my students.
