More Contract Issues September 5, 2008

Yesterday, Thursday, at around 2:45 p.m., the new AP came around with a half-sheet of paper.  On it were the directions for dismissal and a note that the 7th and 8th grade teachers were to stay after school for a meeting from 3:15 – 3:45.  Contractually, the school day ends at 3:04.  I have another job on the other side of the city at 4:00.  So, I had to write a note declining participation.

Personally, I feel disrespected.  A last minute meeting like that makes me feel like you didn’t care enough to consider our needs earlier.  And it was not phrased as an “if you are available, will you please join us.”  It was phrased as a directive.  I dislike directives.

My Principal Really Said. . . September 3, 2008

“Folks, we’re going to be working every second prep period.”  When you have that period, “it won’t be used for planning”, organization, or classroom time.  You’re going to be in meetings, figuring out how to help your kids.  “And (Union Rep), I know this is against contract, and I don’t care.”

I’m going through the year counting up the contract violations.  I have no problem sacrificing those periods; I already did.  But the idea that he would just order us as a whole to do so?  Isn’t happening.

An Incident in Four Days March 2, 2008

On Tuesday afternoon, a student that has a lot of history (if you know what I mean) attempted to walk out of my classroom in order to avoid getting into trouble. I was preventing his exit; he attempted to get around me by grabbing and twisting my wrist. My wrist is sore and sprained, but otherwise I’m okay. I filed an incident report with the school and went to the local precinct to press charges against the student.

On Wednesday morning, I went to the workman’s comp doctor to get patched up. I returned to school at around 10:45.

That afternoon, I played Phone Tag with a guy who identified himself as an investigator from School Police. His last message to me was “rather than play phone tag, I’ll just come up to the school on Thursday morning.” Thursday morning he comes up, I’m in the office dropping off my roll book. I don’t know for sure that it is the guy who called me, so I don’t say anything. He asks to meet with the Principal. In the course of talking to the principal, he realizes that the teacher he is looking for is, in fact, in the same room with him.

So, we meet, he runs me through the process, I tell him what he’s done, he determines that there’s actually nothing he needs to do. He leaves. On his way out, the principal double checks that there’s nothing the Investigator needs from him.

At the end of the day Thursday, the Principal is in a bad mood and yells at his secretaries in front of everyone in the office. I happen to be in the office. He then says “Ms. [Me], can I see you in my office?” He’s pissed and I’m not sure what he wants.

First question: “Why was [Investigator] up in my building?”
Second question: “You know we’re taking care of the situation, correct?”
My response (in short)

1) Secretary #1 informed me yesterday afternoon that I had missed a call from a man from school police. I took the message and I called him back and left a voicemail. He called me back later that afternoon and left a voicemail saying rather than playing phone tag, he’d come up to school to talk to me.

2) He came up this morning. I spoke with him in the conference room. When he asked what action was being taken against the student, I informed him that the student had been out for two days, but I was unsure as to whether that was official or not because I had not gotten a chance to speak with the Dean due to being out (at workman’s comp) Wednesday morning. You interjected and informed us both that he was on a five day suspension and was being 21ed. I told the school police officer that that was what was happening to the student.

3) He gave me some incident numbers I would need for my case, I took down his name and contact information. He left.

Principal gets a whole lot calmer and seems satisfied with this answer.

Friday after school, the Dean bitched me out because she had to deal with the school police Investigator. Apparently the only reason an Investigator comes out following an incident is if someone calls the anonymous tip line. I didn’t even know the anonymous tipline existed, it was created last year after a serious incident at another school. The Dean assumed that I called the tipline and took an exceedingly nasty tone with me about about how “she’s been doing this job for longer than I’ve been teaching”.

Interjection: Reality check. Everyone in that building has been doing some job longer than I’ve been teaching. I’ve only been teaching 1.5 years. Comparing the success of your career to my teaching experience? Rather mediocre.

She refused to believe that I could possibly not know the safety tip line existed. She lectured me and said, in essence, that if I didn’t call it, I knew who did. And since I knew who called the anonymous tipline I should figure it out and tell them to keep it to themselves.

Interjection: Half the school is sick of the kid who assaulted me and half the school knows who did it and what happened because my school is full of gossipy people.

Anyway, she called me a backstabber and made it clear that she remembers when people stab her in the back and question her ability to do her job.

At this point, I’m fundamentally aware that I probably have no disciplinary support for the rest of the year. Furthermore, I will be putting in a transfer request from my school in order to insure that next year, if I stay in Philadelphia, I can start fresh at a new school. I would rather be at another school where I have an opportunity to build relationships than stay in a place where my discipline problems will not be supported in the future because of catty nonsense. I’m still applying to districts in Virginia and West Virginia; I need to get out of this school system before it kills me.

She really wanted me to find out who called the ANONYMOUS tipline that parents, students, and staff members can call when they encounter a problem. Talk about the chill effect on whistleblowers. Sheesh.

Incident Report – Made Anonymous February 10, 2008

Incident Occurred Thursday February 7, 2008

At 1:15 p.m., Sections 72, 73, and 74 made our last rotation of the day.  Section 74 was lined up in the hall while Section 73 was leaving 324 to go into 325.  Student and the rest of her class lined up (although there was some play-fighting by the boys in the back of the line, I could not address that because I was attempting to clear my classroom of Section 73).

Approximately 1:20
Section 74 entered my classroom as I handed each student their daily work.  When I entered the classroom, a few students were away from their seats.  I told them to move to their assigned seats and they did.  Student, while other students were moving, walked out of the classroom.  I caught her going around the corner and said, “Student, you have just walked out of my classroom.”  Student replied, “I’m going to get my bag from Mrs. Grade Coach.” I said, “You need to come back in the classroom and ask permission first, you can’t just walk out.”  She interrupted me halfway through and said, “I’m going to Mrs. Grade Coach’ and then started screaming and cursing about how she wasn’t “fucking” walking out.  She walked away and I made a note to call her mother after school about her walking out of the classroom.
Approximately 1:25
Student returned, walked into the classroom, and slammed the door.  She started shouting about how she didn’t walk out.  Then, she took her seat with her work in front of her.  She seemed to be calming down and in the past I’ve had success with giving her time to herself before I engage with her.  Because she had already escalated herself to this degree and because I was the target of her anger, I was unable to implement any calming suggestions or techniques with her for fear of escalating the situation further.
However, one minute later, she escalated the situation further.  I saw her walk out of the classroom with her hand to her ear and heard, “Mom, yeah. . .” and it trailed off as she closed the door and went into the hallway to call her mom and tell her that I had reported her for walking out of the classroom (which I had not, as of yet, giving her time to get to Mrs. Grade Coach’ office and back as she claimed she was).
1:26 – 1:29
At that point, I called down to the office and reported that I needed an administrator to deal with a student who has walked out of my class on the cell phone with her mother, and that this was a student with particularly high-risk tendencies.  Meanwhile, I kept my door propped open so that I could hear and see Student (as I was still responsible for her as a member of my classroom, and I periodically poked my head out to check on her.
Older Sister (Student’s sister), came down the hall and saw Student yelling and screaming on her cell phone.  Older Sister walked up to me and asked what happened.  Since our interagency meeting regarding Student’s behavior, Student and Older Sister’s mother has asked us to let Older Sister know what is going on.  I started explaining the situation to Older Sister starting with Student walking out of the classroom without permission.  Student overheard my conversation with Older Sister and started screaming into her cell phone about how “now Ms. Me is yelling at Older Sister” when Older Sister and I were having a conversation in normal tones of voice.
1:30
Seeing that Student had gotten herself even more worked up and that there was still no administration or school police/NTAs in the vicinity, I stepped back into my classroom to call again for an administrator and an NTA/School Police.  At this point Teacher 2 and Teacher 1 had put their heads out of their classrooms to see what was going on, recognized the players in the situation, and tried to intercede.  I tried to keep myself away from Student’s line of sight as much as possible, but she was still screaming about how I had cursed at her and reported her for walking out of classroom.  Ms. Teammate1 was trying to keep her kids in the classroom and Ms. Teammate2 had closed her door.  Neither of them witnessed what followed.
After Teacher 1 and Teacher 2 attempted to intervene while we waited for NTAs and School Police, I closed my classroom door in an attempt to keep Student out and away from harming either myself or another student.  (Prior to winter break, there was an incident where Student had another student on a table and was strangling him.)  I was concerned about anyone initially involved being in her line of attack.  My students attempted to continue their warm-ups while Student continued screaming in the hallway.  I was explaining how to do a bar graph for one of the problems and had just moved into the space in front of my classroom entrance (my back was to the door) when I heard my windowpane shatter and the shards of glass fly up and hit the back of my shirt and pants and fall down to the floor behind me.  When I turned around, the door had been punched out.  Although the glass hit me I was physically unharmed, although any of my students at my front table could have been seriously injured had I not been placed exactly where I was.
I am unsure at what point in all of this the NTAs and School Police arrived and managed to get Student away.  In the moments after the glass was broken, I looked out the window and could not see any adult other than Teacher 1, although they could have been out of my line of sight.  Shaking, I tried to keep my kids on their warm-ups and transitioning into grading their previous day’s work.  At some point in that transition, Teacher 1 knocked on my door and asked if I was okay and if I had a broom to clean up the glass.  A split second later, MaryEllen asked me to make a statement.  She and I stepped into the maintenance area next to my classroom to have a private summary while Teacher 1 supervised my students.
That was the end of my interaction with adults until 3:00 when I received a call from Mrs. Grade Coach.  Older Sister was left behind in the hallway after this and she seemed uncertain where to go and what to do.  I asked her if she was okay and she seemed in shock.  A few minutes later she disappeared from the hallway, I do not know to where.

This Week Kind of Sucked October 20, 2007

I can’t share all of the details of why this week sucked so much because of legal/harassment implications.  But repeat after me, “It’s never the kids.”

Two of my colleagues have been singling me out for making decisions “not as a team” and for disrespecting their “seniority. “  In this case, disrespecting their seniority means not cowtowing to their whims.  It also means inserting my whims into the conversation based on my own observations and moral sense of right and wrong.

For example, I have a student that I have very few problems with anymore.  As in, there are students that I have significantly more problems with than him.  My lack of problems with him isn’t any different between the morning, early afternoon, or late afternoon.  However, the other two teachers continue to have problems with him.  I disrespected the most-experienced teacher’s seniority by answering honestly to my principal’s directly asked question of “is everyone having this same problem.”  I told him that since his father came up, I was not having the same intensity of problems although I could see the problems that Teacher1 and Teacher2 were still having with him.  Apparently, I should have lied to my principal.

That’s when this all started.   It blew up yesterday when Teacher 1 and Teacher 3 (completely unrelated to the situation) double-teamed me in front of the whole grade group.  I have been advised to document instances of this kind of behavior happening so that if it continues to happen I can bring a harassment grievance against them.

The only good thing in all of this is that I know (because I went through the proper channels to escalate this) that my principal, my assistant principal, my grade coach, and one other person will back me on this if it continues to happen.

Last Week Was Pure Hell October 14, 2007

Who knew that a two day week in the classroom could be so painful?

Last week, we had a four day week.  Except on Thursday and Friday, a colleague and I were attending a conference in Richmond, Virginia.  So, we had a two day week in the classroom and a two day week in intense, on going professional development.

In those two days that we were there, my students basically did everything they could wrong and the school decided to be a giant pain in my butt.

I dislike working with adults.

Organizing Contact Information September 17, 2007

So, as teachers, one of the things that we have to do is acquire a million ways to get ahold of parents in the event of an emergency.  This year, I combined all of these tasks into my favorite mapping website:  Google Maps.

With My Maps, I can make each of my students a little pushpin icon on a web-based map.  I can organize them by section (color-coded) and plan trips to multiple students based on where the cluster of icons on the map is.   All I need to access their address and phone number is access to my Google account.  Even with just one section entered, I can see the clusters of students around my school’s neighborhood.  This week, I will enter the other two sections.

This is awesome.  Bonus for pushpin icons in the three primary colors.

Comments on School: Days 5 & 6 September 12, 2007

We got students on Monday. That was a little bit crazy. The kids have been good so far. They only misbehave when they get promised one thing and have it changed on them. I don’t make promises; frequently, I have to break the ones other people made. On behalf of the other people. It sucks.

I love my new students, though. Nothing too crappy so far.

But you know you’ve become a teacher when you ask permission from male friends to pretend they are boyfriends in order to get a bunch of 14 year olds off your back.

Classroom Complete! (Day 4) September 8, 2007

Yesterday was the last day in the building before the students show up on Monday.  My classroom still looked trashed because of all of the cleaning I did.  I planned on leaving around 5:00; I didn’t leave until 6:00.

But my classroom is cleaned.  My  room is set up.  Furniture is in place and most of my bulletin boards are arranged.  I know what’s going on the moment my students walk into the building on Monday.

The 7th grade situation was resolved with a new roster at 2:00 p.m. yesterday.  I’m paired with one reading teacher and our science teacher became our science/social studies teacher.  So, I see 3 classes for math, R sees three classes for reading,  and S sees three classes for each of science and social studies.  The other two teachers have two classes they see for math and social studies or reading and science (depending on the teacher).  All is well, but the uncertainty was killing morale.

I got home yesterday and passed out completely.  100%.  I slept from around 7:00 until 8:30 a.m.   It was crazy.

School. No School. School. Team. No Team. Team (?) Days 2 and 3. September 7, 2007

Yesterday, I was so exhausted after school that I couldn’t bring myself to detail the events of the day. I told myself that when I got home today, I would make a post explaining what happened yesterday. Then I would make a post explaining what happened today. Then I was exhausted when I got home. Now I’m finally making the post.

Day 2: Jones loses the Annex (Alternative) Building

On Tuesday, I mentioned the possibility that my school might lose its alternative building due to the district wanting to move an outside group (CEP) into the building to lease the space. On Tuesday afternoon, that became a reality. All of the teachers at Jones Annex were to pack up their classrooms and move into the first floor of Jones. Any regular classrooms on the first floor of Jones were to move to the second floor of Jones. My Special Education Colleague had to move her stuff from 112 (where she moved it at the very end of last year) to the Assistant Principal’s office on the 2nd floor–which was to become her new classroom. The AP was moving to the Counselor’s Suite (which is an incredible sacrifice due to the obscenely small space available in there). By the end of the day, Tifanie had her boxes and materials out of the classroom, but still needed to move her furniture upstairs. Meanwhile, I was continuing the battle to have my classroom materials organized and finish moving furniture.

Of course, prior to all of this happening, we had the privilege misfortune of sitting through a professional development DVD that stopped at 7-8 different points where we had “activities” we needed to complete. This took two hours. It was mind-numbing. And it didn’t tell me anything that I hadn’t also learned in Teach For America Literacy Support sessions in Institute last summer.

We, as a school, resigned ourselves to our fate for at least the first week of school. Our principal began drafting a letter to parents in hopes that they would be able to continue the fight where we failed. Everyone agrees that this decision was among the worst things that could be done to our student population. Our Principal is continuing to fight it, but all seems lost.

Day 3: What all logic and powers of persuasion fail to do, legalese does

This morning, we all show up at school and in our announcements meeting, we are told that the Alt is moving into the first floor and so the classrooms on the first floor (including the rooms that have been used as storage) are being moved out and organized today. Somewhere in all of this, someone finds all of the unused math materials from the after school program (Power Hour) and summer school for 2-3 previous years. I go downstairs and claim “dibs” on the 7th Grade math materials on behalf of the 7th Grade math teachers. Jackpot. I have plenty of material now to use for instruction and assignment if a student is out sick for an extended absence. While I’m downstairs claiming dibs on lots of stuff and bringing it upstairs, the Alternative School Principal gets a call from Our Principal telling him to stop moving classrooms and furniture and claiming an hour moratorium because of things going on in the region.

About 45 minutes later, we get an announcement: The Decision to Move the Alternative School to the Main Building has been Reversed.

The Alt is staying at the Annex. We have our first floor back. And now, all of the teachers who moved their classrooms from the first floor need to move back.  My special education colleague gets to once again return her stuff to 112. Again. Sheesh. We’re teachers, not a moving company. Shouldn’t we be paid extra for this? Of course not.

All of this happened by about 10:30 a.m. this morning. You might wonder: why the sudden reversal? Did our regional superintendent finally see reason and space constraints? Of course not. This is the School District of Philadelphia.

The grand scheme was ultimately defeated by the lawyers. The Annex already held a non-profit group that did work with students and the district has been given them that space for some time. CEP wanted to lease the whole building; the non-profit group would have had to pay CEP rent. The non-profit has no maintenance/building funds because they work in conjunction with the district. I assume the district has a contract with them for that space even though they don’t pay. So the district can’t kick them out onto the street. The plan ultimately fell through because the District couldn’t house a non-profit and for-profit group within the same school building.

No logic. No reason. Not in our students’ interest. Pure contract law and prior rights to the space. Welcome to a district run as a business rather than a system of schools. (We don’t have a School Board, we have a School Reform Commission. We don’t have a Board Chairman, we have a CEO.)

That wasn’t the worst part of my day. Or really, the day of any of the 7th grade teachers.

Downtown struck again at around 11:00 a.m. when they called the school and said that due to enrollment, we had to cut at least three teachers — we were overstaffed. Cutting teachers at this point screws everyone over. Especially those teachers.

My Teach For America colleague who has been planning for 7th grade social studies got told that she’s our new 8th grade social studies teacher. She has to move classrooms. The 8th grade teacher, it seems, is gone. The 7th grade isn’t getting another teacher. Our class sizes are too low (22-25 students each; contractual max is 33). So, instead of having six groups of kids, we have five. Instead of having 20-25 student in our classes, we are starting the year with 26 – 29. Oh, and the entire roster needs to change because somehow between the two math teachers, the two literacy teachers, and the science teacher, we have to teach all five sections social studies.

There are three ways do this (Math1, Math2, Read1, Read2, Sci). A block of M/R is 90 minutes. A block of Sci/SS is 45 minutes.

(M1 + R1) and (M2 + R2 + S).

Option 1: Best for Behavior Management and Classroom Instruction

M1 and R1 teach their sections only math and reading. M1 teaches math and science, R1 teaches reading and social studies.

M2, R2, and S group. M2 and R2 teach Math and Reading to their three sections. S teaches science and social studies to their three sections.

Option 2: Best for Certification Issues — in this case, M2 is me. In the previous case, the Ms and Rs were interchangeable.

M1: Three sections of Math (M1, R1, S)

M2: Two sections of Math (M2 and R2) and two sections of Social Studies (M2 and R2)

R1: Two sections of Reading (M1, R1) and two sections of Social Studies (M1 and R1)

R2: Three sections of Reading (M2, R2, S)

S: Five sections of Science () and one section of social studies (S).

Option 3: Worst for behavior management, instruction, and certification. This of course was the one that was first proposed and the only one I’ve heard on the table. (M2 is still me)

R1: Three Sections of Reading (R1, M1, S)

M1: Three Sections of Math (R1, M1, S)

R2: Two Sections of Reading (R2, M2) and Two Sections of Social Studies (R1, R2)

M2: Two Sections of Math (R2, M2) and Two Sections of Social Studies (M1, M2)

S: Five Sections of Science (ALL) and One Section of Social Studies (S)

In the last option, you might not see it, but R2 is seeing R1’s kids — kids she never sees otherwise. And M2 is seeing M1’s kids — kids she never sees otherwise. That kind of schedule spells management disaster at my school; I know because I had to deal with it at last year. It was miserable. Management is hell because the students think of themselves as X’s kids and it requires a lot of conversations, trust, teamwork and cooperation to pull off the kind of discipline required to make that kind of cross-team connection work. My school lacks a lot of that and forcing us into that situation would make it worse, not better.

Hopefully there will be a viable solution when we show up tomorrow. I have to have trust in the Leadership Team. Most of the time, they know what they were doing. I just wish they would involve the 5 teachers it actually affects into the rostering conversation.

School starts Monday.