So, if you haven't already realized this, I am the union rep for our building. The reason I got so heavily involved with the union is that when I came to this district six years ago, I was amazed at what I had stepped in to. I came from a district that paid well. That was my biggest (and still remains so) problem with this distict. When I got my first paycheck, and it was my first full-time paycheck in ten years, I was excited to see a large sum. What I saw was about equivalent to what I had been making half-time in my previous district. I began to delve into our pay, and found pay schedules from other districts, not just my previous one. All were better. And at my New Hire orientation we were told that we had "one of the best contracts in the state!" I began to send emails to our then-union president, asking how we had one of the best contracts in the state if I just took a huge pay cut. He soon stopped replying to my emails. At the end of the year, a new two year contract was passed by teachers without a blink of an eye. The crappy pay remained, and no one seemed to realize or care. However, a new union president was elected. I moved schools and became the union rep. The union's goal, under the new president, was to inform our members. Slowly, teachers began to see that things were not good. And movement happened, including a strike a few years ago. I felt hopeful that teachers were beginning to pay attention and demand better.
Things are still not great. One of the things that teachers have to do in this district that I never had to do since I started to teach in 1987 is morning duty. Our student day begins at 9:30, and kids can arrive to school at 9:10. That's when buses drop them off in the morning. There are six morning duty posts that teachers must fill: three playground posts, one post to help with breakfast, one post at bus drop off, and one post at parent drop off. Now, I haven't had morning duty since being a rep-this is in the contract that a rep might not have extra duty if the building supported it. Mr. Principal ran a survey, and 18 teachers said I shouldn't have duty, and 4 said I should. But because the number of duty weeks for a given teacher had increased by a week this year (I think an extra post was added on the playgound), I was getting angry emails from teachers about morning duty.
Because not everyone had morning duty. I looked at the Morning Duty Roster, and compared it with my union members list. Including me, there were 12 names on my union list that didn't have to do morning duty. That is a lot, and if eveyone (including me) did morning duty, it would bring it down for all. I sent an email to Mr. Principal about this. He was surprised that there were so many, and asked who they were. I replied that first I wanted to bring it up with the union members to see if it was an issue they wanted me to pursue. But before I could bring it up tactfully, it came out at a union meeting we had last week with our union president. And unfortunately all of the special ed teachers felt attacked, as basically they were the ones not on the rotation. By the end of the day, I had been visited by at least two of the special ed teachers who had felt attacked in some way.
Well. Sorry. But if you don't have kids before school, as our Self Contained preschool class does, then you need to help out. Including me. After school I had a chat with Mr. Principal. I told him that teachers are upset in that their morning duty supervision had increased by a week. All teachers now had 12 weeks of morning duty, and some lucky ones had 13. I said how much of a hardship it is to have morning duty for a full week the 20 minutes right up until the start of the school day. We looked at the list of teachers who weren't on the morning duty roster (including me). Some of those teachers were not responsible for morning duty, in that they are at several schools. So those were out. Others, like our preschool class, had kids coming in as early as 8:15, so that teacher already did morning supervision of her kids. That made sense not to have her in the morning duty rotation. But our two Education Assisstants? Well, Mr. Principal said, they need to be available in the morning to meet with teachers if necessary. Well, I said, the teachers would really appreciate if they saw that the Education Assisstants were helping out. And why can't the two of them count as one teacher? Then it frees them up an awful lot, but also helps with reducing the number of weeks for the rest of us. And while we're at it, why can't the two Integrated Program teachers, who don't have kids before school but do have a lot of meetings (of which they receive a stipend of $3000.00 for) also count as one teacher?
Mr. Principal actually liked that idea. Things are in the works. But our staff is like a simmering pot that is getting ready to boil over. I wonder when that will happen? It's not a happy place.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Math Problem
The question on the quiz was about making combinations. Here was the question: Emily is making snack bags. She has 3 different kinds of fruit-apples, oranges, and bananas. She has 4 different kinds of crackers-butter, cheese, wheat, and sesame. Each snack bag will have one kind of fruit and one kind of cracker. How many different kinds of snoack bags can Emily make? What are they?
Student's answer: apples and butter crackers, apples and cheese crackers, apples and wheat crackers, lastly, apples and sesame crackers. oranges and butter crackers, oranges and cheese crackers, oranges and wheat crackers, lastly, oranges and sesame crackers. Bananas and butter crackers, bananas and cheedse crackers, bananas and wheat crackers, lastly, bananas and sesame crackers. Emily can make 12 different snack crackers. Very exausting (sic).
But thorough.
Student's answer: apples and butter crackers, apples and cheese crackers, apples and wheat crackers, lastly, apples and sesame crackers. oranges and butter crackers, oranges and cheese crackers, oranges and wheat crackers, lastly, oranges and sesame crackers. Bananas and butter crackers, bananas and cheedse crackers, bananas and wheat crackers, lastly, bananas and sesame crackers. Emily can make 12 different snack crackers. Very exausting (sic).
But thorough.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Narcs
That's what we called kids who tattled in the 70's: Narcs! We have a few "informers" on staff who are union members who must be going right to Mr. Principal with every email I send. Or more likely they are trying to score points by forwarding to him every email I send. I think I'm careful about what I say in my emails, though, and don't make personal comments.
One email received from Mr. Principal had to do with the meetings. He began, "I've heard that there are grumblings about the number of meetings I have scheduled. The contract says I can have up to 8 a month..." Yes, Mr. Principal, we all know that because I have been telling everyone that. You are fine with the number of meetings according to contract. It's the four additional meetings that Ms. Education Assistant asked us to add to our plate (per your request, though, I'm sure). But you know darned well no one "grumbled" to him...They grumbled to me, and there were emails going out to staff from me about required meetings. Someone forwarded them to Mr. Principal, I'm sure.
In a way, why not? As long as I watch what I say, which is often hard for me to do when I feel wronged. I'm otherwise tactful and I don't like to hurt people's feelings or say things to offend. But I do believe in fairness, and the contract is there for a reason.
When I left school yesterday, I walked past Ms. Education Assistant's office. Mr. Principal was also there. I walked past, as it was late and I wanted to get home. Mr. Principal called out hello. So I said hello. We exchanged pleasantries. Then he hits me with, "Now, is there anything in the contract about when you can and can't conduct union business?" At first I thought he was referring to holding meetings, which I rarely do because they are poorly attended (we are meeting-ed out, and I can do it by email). But we do have a meeting scheduled for October 18 with our union president. I think it will be a bitch session (If Ms. Education Assisstant comes, there will most likely be less bitching...). I told Mr. Principal that I wasn't aware of anything, and that as far as I knew and had heard in the past, as long as it didn't interfere with our job, any time was ok. He shook his head and said boy, it wasn't like that in his former district (then go back, I wanted to say...).
As I drove home I reflected on that comment. Why was it said in the first place? What transpired to bring this up? Was he just referring to meetings, or to emails? I often send out emails if I sit for five minutes and can get one off. Did someone say to Mr. Principal that Ms. Building Union Rep is sending out emails during times when she should be teaching? I think that is highly likely. Ms. Education Assistant is a union member and so gets emails I send. And even though most staff doesn't like Mr. Principal, there are still those brown-nosers who are just trying to get brownie points.
That's why I quite Face Book. I'm unhappy, and when I get a glass of wine, my tongue gets loosened. Some of my "friends" from work may take advantage of that. I hope I can get through this year.
Those Narcs.
One email received from Mr. Principal had to do with the meetings. He began, "I've heard that there are grumblings about the number of meetings I have scheduled. The contract says I can have up to 8 a month..." Yes, Mr. Principal, we all know that because I have been telling everyone that. You are fine with the number of meetings according to contract. It's the four additional meetings that Ms. Education Assistant asked us to add to our plate (per your request, though, I'm sure). But you know darned well no one "grumbled" to him...They grumbled to me, and there were emails going out to staff from me about required meetings. Someone forwarded them to Mr. Principal, I'm sure.
In a way, why not? As long as I watch what I say, which is often hard for me to do when I feel wronged. I'm otherwise tactful and I don't like to hurt people's feelings or say things to offend. But I do believe in fairness, and the contract is there for a reason.
When I left school yesterday, I walked past Ms. Education Assistant's office. Mr. Principal was also there. I walked past, as it was late and I wanted to get home. Mr. Principal called out hello. So I said hello. We exchanged pleasantries. Then he hits me with, "Now, is there anything in the contract about when you can and can't conduct union business?" At first I thought he was referring to holding meetings, which I rarely do because they are poorly attended (we are meeting-ed out, and I can do it by email). But we do have a meeting scheduled for October 18 with our union president. I think it will be a bitch session (If Ms. Education Assisstant comes, there will most likely be less bitching...). I told Mr. Principal that I wasn't aware of anything, and that as far as I knew and had heard in the past, as long as it didn't interfere with our job, any time was ok. He shook his head and said boy, it wasn't like that in his former district (then go back, I wanted to say...).
As I drove home I reflected on that comment. Why was it said in the first place? What transpired to bring this up? Was he just referring to meetings, or to emails? I often send out emails if I sit for five minutes and can get one off. Did someone say to Mr. Principal that Ms. Building Union Rep is sending out emails during times when she should be teaching? I think that is highly likely. Ms. Education Assistant is a union member and so gets emails I send. And even though most staff doesn't like Mr. Principal, there are still those brown-nosers who are just trying to get brownie points.
That's why I quite Face Book. I'm unhappy, and when I get a glass of wine, my tongue gets loosened. Some of my "friends" from work may take advantage of that. I hope I can get through this year.
Those Narcs.
Meetings
Actually, I woke at 1:30, and haven't been able to fall back asleep. This is how it has been this year, and it's only been a month of school. I just do not see how I'm going to last, and I worry that I won't be able to move on somewhere else next year. After all, who do I ask for a reference letter? Why Mr. Principal and Ms. Education Assisstant! And for some reason, I have fallen out of their favor.
Not for "some reason," I guess. I do know the reason. I am the building's union rep. I take that position seriously. I have a strong sense of fairness,and when I came to my current district from my former district, and saw many bad things happening with teacher rights and responsibilities, I became involved in the union. I was never a strong union supporter in my former district; I really didn't pay too much attention to it. But here? I have.
Therefore, when teachers bring up issues to me, I bring it up to Mr. Principal. He won't listen to me unless I have the contract to back me up. But when I do, I will stay with it! And so, even though I helped our school get its highest science scores ever, and even though I took the split with hardly the blink of an eye, I have fallen out of favor. Plus, being a split, I don't really "plan with" the fourth or the fifth; I'm kind of in a spot to myself, which is a place I've never liked being. I like planning with others. And my former teammate was so driven and would spend her free time creating wonderful assessments. I miss that.
So, according to contract, a principal can have no more than two meetings a week, and no more than 8 a month. And our Mr. Principal is living this to the fullest! He has us coming to meetings Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Most months have 6-8 meetings scheduled; if any months have less, it's because he couldn't cram in any more around vacations or weeks before conferences when he can't have meetings...The majority of the meetings are a waste of time. The meetings have different labels, but they all are us having to listen to him. And listen. And listen.
Then the other week, Ms. Education Assistant who dreams of being a principal but is still at a teacher status and is also one of my union members, sent out an email with a calendar attached. He email asked for teams to add to the calendar when they will be meeting weekly.
Whoa! If we are being asked to place regular meetings on a calendar, then that adds to whatever meetings Mr. Principal has all ready scheduled. If he has 7 meetings scheduled all ready for that month, and you expect us to meet weekly with our team, than that puts us way over the 8 meetings per month. Can't you see that? If it has to go on a calendar, that makes it official, and it is a meeting.
No, Ms. Education Assistant couldn't see that. In fact, in her reply to me, she went "grrrr..." at the end of the email. She growled at me! God. And I liked her, too. How could she do something so disrespectful? She eventually sort of apologized, but you know, she wouldn't growl at my former teammate. She is only growling at me because, as the union rep, I'm the one speaking up for all!
I am not against teaming and planning together. That's how I want to teach. But Mr. Principal has us doing so many useless things that any planning has to be on the fly. I would be much happier if Mr. Principal had ony one meeting a week, and let us have one meeting a week to get with our team.
I'm just so frustrated that I haven't been sleeping well.
Not for "some reason," I guess. I do know the reason. I am the building's union rep. I take that position seriously. I have a strong sense of fairness,and when I came to my current district from my former district, and saw many bad things happening with teacher rights and responsibilities, I became involved in the union. I was never a strong union supporter in my former district; I really didn't pay too much attention to it. But here? I have.
Therefore, when teachers bring up issues to me, I bring it up to Mr. Principal. He won't listen to me unless I have the contract to back me up. But when I do, I will stay with it! And so, even though I helped our school get its highest science scores ever, and even though I took the split with hardly the blink of an eye, I have fallen out of favor. Plus, being a split, I don't really "plan with" the fourth or the fifth; I'm kind of in a spot to myself, which is a place I've never liked being. I like planning with others. And my former teammate was so driven and would spend her free time creating wonderful assessments. I miss that.
So, according to contract, a principal can have no more than two meetings a week, and no more than 8 a month. And our Mr. Principal is living this to the fullest! He has us coming to meetings Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Most months have 6-8 meetings scheduled; if any months have less, it's because he couldn't cram in any more around vacations or weeks before conferences when he can't have meetings...The majority of the meetings are a waste of time. The meetings have different labels, but they all are us having to listen to him. And listen. And listen.
Then the other week, Ms. Education Assistant who dreams of being a principal but is still at a teacher status and is also one of my union members, sent out an email with a calendar attached. He email asked for teams to add to the calendar when they will be meeting weekly.
Whoa! If we are being asked to place regular meetings on a calendar, then that adds to whatever meetings Mr. Principal has all ready scheduled. If he has 7 meetings scheduled all ready for that month, and you expect us to meet weekly with our team, than that puts us way over the 8 meetings per month. Can't you see that? If it has to go on a calendar, that makes it official, and it is a meeting.
No, Ms. Education Assistant couldn't see that. In fact, in her reply to me, she went "grrrr..." at the end of the email. She growled at me! God. And I liked her, too. How could she do something so disrespectful? She eventually sort of apologized, but you know, she wouldn't growl at my former teammate. She is only growling at me because, as the union rep, I'm the one speaking up for all!
I am not against teaming and planning together. That's how I want to teach. But Mr. Principal has us doing so many useless things that any planning has to be on the fly. I would be much happier if Mr. Principal had ony one meeting a week, and let us have one meeting a week to get with our team.
I'm just so frustrated that I haven't been sleeping well.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Reality Sets In
What was that song by The Rascals? I loved it..."How Can I be sure, In a world, that's constantly changing..."
My song is "Where Did It Go Wrong..." Sung to the same tune, I think. But not as sweet.
Where do I begin? Not sure. The year started out great with us finding out that our students last year scored the highest on the state science test in our district-and that is out of like 23 elementaries (we are the fourth largest district in our state). So I was pumped for the year! Great science scores last year! My teammate and I were an awesome team! And we had 31 and 32 kids on our class roster....Oh, no.
So a split classroom had to be created. Out of the teachers being affected, only I had taught both 4th and 5th grade. I asked Mr. Principal, who do you want to teach it? His reply was me-(or you...you know what I mean...). So I said sure, I'll teach it.
Then the nightmare began. We had meetings and meetings to make this happen. I had to give up 19 fifth graders. It wasn't hard to give some of them up. I kept 12 fifth graders. And to my credit, I didn't keep the smartest ones. Just nice ones. Some very smart, some not so. My 19 kids who left were sad to go (I think). My 12 remaining fifth graders sort of moved up into the first few rows in my room.
And my 12 fourth graders came in. Wildly. Loudly. There seemed to be mostly small, loud boys...Oh, no, I thought. And of course the only spots were further towards the back or in the last row. This was a Wednesday at the end of the day. I vowed to moved kids after school, but many things came up to prevent me from doing this.
The next day we were still in the same seats with most of the 4th graders towards the back. And they seemed to not have any manners at all. There was one very loud girl. And it seemed that were about 5 loud boys. Half of the fourth graders who came in seemed loud and obnoxious without any manners. I threatened to move desks, but after school, again, it didn't happen. I felt like I was drowning.
Finally, on Monday before school, I moved kids around. I intermixed the fourth graders with the fifth graders. I kept brighter kids towards the back, but also moved a kid up front regardless of brightness. One boy who had been driving me crazy the past three days, and actually seemed pretty bright, was moved into the first row. I began a new week.
What a difference. The boy I moved up front? He bacame teacher's pet (he's my boy that can't say his r's...). The loud girl? I got right on her right away. Now, she tows the line for the most part, and is probably one of my smartest KIDS in the class, not just the smartest 4th grader. It's been a month of hard work, but the fourth graders have shaped up, and my fifth graders are still nice, and the class is feeling like one community.
And now I'm too tired to write about the things that are not going well in my teaching life. I'll write about that later. For now, let's just say that last year, Mr. Principal's first year of being a principal and his first year at our school, was exhausting. This year? It's just plain frustrating...Look for lots of venting this year, and by the year's end, my adventure as I try to get a job elsewhere. I'm hoping it might be an easy thing to do, given my science success, and hopefully I passed my Take One! course I did last year. Those will look good. Hopefully good enough to overcome any bad reference from Mr. Principal, because I have no other choice. Whew...
My song is "Where Did It Go Wrong..." Sung to the same tune, I think. But not as sweet.
Where do I begin? Not sure. The year started out great with us finding out that our students last year scored the highest on the state science test in our district-and that is out of like 23 elementaries (we are the fourth largest district in our state). So I was pumped for the year! Great science scores last year! My teammate and I were an awesome team! And we had 31 and 32 kids on our class roster....Oh, no.
So a split classroom had to be created. Out of the teachers being affected, only I had taught both 4th and 5th grade. I asked Mr. Principal, who do you want to teach it? His reply was me-(or you...you know what I mean...). So I said sure, I'll teach it.
Then the nightmare began. We had meetings and meetings to make this happen. I had to give up 19 fifth graders. It wasn't hard to give some of them up. I kept 12 fifth graders. And to my credit, I didn't keep the smartest ones. Just nice ones. Some very smart, some not so. My 19 kids who left were sad to go (I think). My 12 remaining fifth graders sort of moved up into the first few rows in my room.
And my 12 fourth graders came in. Wildly. Loudly. There seemed to be mostly small, loud boys...Oh, no, I thought. And of course the only spots were further towards the back or in the last row. This was a Wednesday at the end of the day. I vowed to moved kids after school, but many things came up to prevent me from doing this.
The next day we were still in the same seats with most of the 4th graders towards the back. And they seemed to not have any manners at all. There was one very loud girl. And it seemed that were about 5 loud boys. Half of the fourth graders who came in seemed loud and obnoxious without any manners. I threatened to move desks, but after school, again, it didn't happen. I felt like I was drowning.
Finally, on Monday before school, I moved kids around. I intermixed the fourth graders with the fifth graders. I kept brighter kids towards the back, but also moved a kid up front regardless of brightness. One boy who had been driving me crazy the past three days, and actually seemed pretty bright, was moved into the first row. I began a new week.
What a difference. The boy I moved up front? He bacame teacher's pet (he's my boy that can't say his r's...). The loud girl? I got right on her right away. Now, she tows the line for the most part, and is probably one of my smartest KIDS in the class, not just the smartest 4th grader. It's been a month of hard work, but the fourth graders have shaped up, and my fifth graders are still nice, and the class is feeling like one community.
And now I'm too tired to write about the things that are not going well in my teaching life. I'll write about that later. For now, let's just say that last year, Mr. Principal's first year of being a principal and his first year at our school, was exhausting. This year? It's just plain frustrating...Look for lots of venting this year, and by the year's end, my adventure as I try to get a job elsewhere. I'm hoping it might be an easy thing to do, given my science success, and hopefully I passed my Take One! course I did last year. Those will look good. Hopefully good enough to overcome any bad reference from Mr. Principal, because I have no other choice. Whew...
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Sound It Out!
I have a fourth grade boy who can't pronounce his r's. It's cute, really...When I first changed to a 4/5 split, and heard him speak, I sent an email to our speech teacher.
"I noticed that Bobby can't pronounce his r's," I wrote. "Do you see him for speech?"
"No," she replied. "He was evaluated before, but didn't qualify. Do you notice if his speech affects his academics? Do kids make fun of him?"
Well, I just got him, so I hadn't noticed any of those things yet. He seemed to be friendly and confident with his speech, though, so I figured he was ok.
The other day, though, the kids were working on their personal narrative essays. He brought his up to me to read. "Oh no," I thought as I read, "Another football game story..."
But here's what really jumped out at me. He used the word "welly." As in "I was welly nervous..."
Welly? Do you mean "really?" I think you do. And he did this twice. Because he is sounding out the word in his head to spell it. He doesn't pronounce his r's. So "really" to him in his head sounds like "welly." He spelled it how it sounded.
I sent a new email. "Is this an example of his mispronunciation of r's affecting his academics?"
"I noticed that Bobby can't pronounce his r's," I wrote. "Do you see him for speech?"
"No," she replied. "He was evaluated before, but didn't qualify. Do you notice if his speech affects his academics? Do kids make fun of him?"
Well, I just got him, so I hadn't noticed any of those things yet. He seemed to be friendly and confident with his speech, though, so I figured he was ok.
The other day, though, the kids were working on their personal narrative essays. He brought his up to me to read. "Oh no," I thought as I read, "Another football game story..."
But here's what really jumped out at me. He used the word "welly." As in "I was welly nervous..."
Welly? Do you mean "really?" I think you do. And he did this twice. Because he is sounding out the word in his head to spell it. He doesn't pronounce his r's. So "really" to him in his head sounds like "welly." He spelled it how it sounded.
I sent a new email. "Is this an example of his mispronunciation of r's affecting his academics?"
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