Long Overdue Update

So yes, I know that it's been weeks since I've updated. Not because I've not had anything going on but mostly because too much has been going on. A lot has happened since I last posted. So let's start at the beginning.

So I didn't receive a pink slip (California's going through some pretty intense budget cuts right now) but I come back from Winter Camp to have a meeting with the principal. She told me the previous week that she wants to talk about "instructional issues" so I'm like "that's fine, let's do this". So in the meeting, she discusses some "instructional issues" that she would like to see in the classroom, like engagement (aka making Popsicle sticks with everyone's name on them to call on them in class) and "checking for understanding" (which is the new "big thing" in the district right now). Those were under issue number one and there was an issue number two that said curriculum issues or or something like that but she said absolutely nothing about that. So after the meeting I go over to Catherine and she's like "this is a Form D! She can't give you this after the deadline." She immediately gets on the phone to GGEA, the union and sends me over to go see them immediately. Apparently, a Form D basically is what you get if they're maybe thinking of not having you back next year. If she didn't want me back at the end of the year, she would have had to previously given me a Form D. This doesn't mean that I'm done for and I'm not getting my job back next year, but basically I'm on the chopping block. Anyway, I go over to GGEA and talk to the president and he tells me that she can give me a Form D whenever she wants but to give me one with no warning and having only been in my classroom twice in the last two months (one of those times being a day they specifically told us to not teach new material since half the kid would be out for the Spanish language test) is pretty shady.

Now what does this mean for me now? Well, basically it's Suck-Up City time. I basically need to show her in as many ways possible that I'm trying to be the teacher that she wants me to be. If that means making note cards with my kids' names on them to useto call on them in class, do it (check). If that means going to observe Mark and his questioning strategies, do it (check). If that means going to visit another off-site teacher to observe, do it (will be checked after Spring Break). If that means meeting with a TOSA after I'm observed, do it (check). If that means attending optional meetings, no matter how inane, do it (I will be attending probably every single upcoming advisement meeting for the year of my life). And this sucks. Not the extra stuff that I have to do per say but really the sucking up to someone that i don't really like and respect. I really don't have confidence in my principal. I have watched her around the students and they can walk all over her. You can't have that in an administrator of a middle school, especially a middle school with some pretty tough kids. They should not be saying that Friday Follow Through (Friday detention for not doing homework during the week) is fun when she's there because they know that they can talk. It's very very frustrating. I realized that there is no way in hell that i can ever present my thesis to the school without cutting out a lot because everything that I discovered about what makes a good school with a strong culture is missing from my school right now. It's out of control!

Thank goodness for my department though. From minute one of getting the Form D, they have been behind me, giving me whatever I've needed, from support to humor to a letter to the ACLU asking if we have a lawsuit on our hands since both Jimmy (the teacher who was fired last year) and I are Jewish. I'm so grateful and lucky to have such a great department and also support of people outside of the department who have been on my side with this. So that's where my saga ends for the moment. Who knows what will happen as things go on. Tomorrow my kids take their benchmark and then I'm off for Spring Break. Thank goodness- it cannot come soon enough!