Saturday, October 20, 2012

Guide to Student Teaching #8


Faculty meetings are the worst. I suppose no one cares to go to company meetings, regardless of the company, but I also suspect that some meetings are better than others. Meetings for food service industry workers mean that there will be food and drink on hand. That is a perk. A games manufacturer might have test toys and games for employees to handle and evaluate. That could be fun. Anyone in the music industry knows that they get to hear a lot of terrible music, but they also get to be the first to discover the next big thing.

School faculty meetings are the worst. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what makes them so awful. Perhaps it is the frequency and duration. 2+ hours every week is, in my opinion, is a poor use of valuable time. On the other hand, if the 2+ hours were used to discuss potential solutions instead of just problems, then I wouldn’t mind. However, when the meetings disintegrate into a 15-person complain-train, not only do I want to run away before my spirit and enthusiasm are crushed, but I also want to stand up and shout, “They’re just kids, for crying out loud! Stop letting them get you down! Can we please move on!”
            
I don’t doubt that these faculty meetings could be productive, but only if one person would take control, lead, and keep everyone on task. It would be nice if that person would also set the tone for professionalism. I don’t understand how so many educators in a single room lack the wherewithal to transfer skills of time management, focusing, explicit instruction, and facilitating an effective whole group discussion. Even if it is too difficult to maintain order or an agenda, then at least the language should be elevated. It shouldn’t be difficult to use proper English when addressing colleagues, but when profanity becomes the norm, proper English doesn’t stand a chance. Poor, poor proper English. No one likes using you.
            
I shouldn’t make such broad, sweeping generalizations. There are several teachers and administrators who feel the same way I do, but they also fear the consequences for stating an opinion that may seem oppositional. Since I have been here, I have not seen the administration offer support for the teachers. I have witnessed many promises and assurances to “consider the idea(s)”, but very little action. Teachers have been requesting lists: students on sports teams, students in ISS, students with IEPs, and students who qualify as low-income. Honestly, the school should consider renaming itself after St. Anthony – patron saint of lost items. Nobody knows where anything is. These lists would be helpful, but when it takes two hours to do something today that will save a little time everyday, forever, the trend around here is to put it off.
            
I don’t have time to put things off, and this Friday night, I made a promise to never put off my own work in lieu of work for the greater good of the school. Friday night was an Open House event, and one that I was planning to attend so I could meet more parents and interact with future stakeholders. I arrived at school a full hour early, just to clean up the room, set up displays, and make sure my classroom looked the way a classroom should look. Then, I spent the day teaching, assisting my cooperating teacher and our students, and completing a special “insert” the principal requested for the last issue of the school newspaper. As the day went on, I became more and more excited for the Open House event, and I felt like I was truly helping the school.
            
After school, I graded papers, grabbed a sandwich, and purchased a few last-minute supplies for my own work. The faculty met briefly to discuss the agenda for the evening, then the teachers were sent to wait in their classrooms for the tour to begin. I waited in my classroom, alone (my CT couldn’t be there that night) for 2 hours. No tour came through. No announcements were made over the PA system. Fifteen minutes before the Open House was scheduled to end, I walked upstairs and found a large group of people in the gymnasium, watching the principal give the final presentation of the evening.
            
I asked the teacher whose room is next to mine what happened. She looked at me, sniffed, and said, “I dunno, sister. The tour came to my room. They must have decided to skip you.” WHAT? I was dumbfounded, hurt, and more than a little ticked off. I had been looking forward to this Open House all day. I had made displays, helped the principal, cleaned… I had even bought a Glade plug-in air freshener and played an album of Kerouac’s spoken word poetry. I wanted parents to see my classroom, and I wanted to help sell the school.
            
Once again, I am reminded that I am merely a student teacher, and perhaps my classroom was skipped over because my CT couldn’t be there. I could understand how that might reflect badly on the school. What I don’t understand is why I was treated with no consideration whatsoever. It wouldn’t have been difficult to tell me to come to the next Open House with my CT. I am wasting my time trying to be and do what this school needs, and I’m done. Now my worry is whether or not this is the type of treatment I can expect as a certified teacher. 

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