Frustration

This week was one frustration after the other. First, having to give benchmarks and reading level tests in the same week was a management nightmare. If looks could kill, I'd be dead by now thanks to my students. They were not happy to have to take 2 standardized tests in one week (and while I can't blame them, I still wish they would complain less...)

Then, I got observed for my certification on Thursday, and instead of celebrating my progress this year (and recognizing that mid-May of 8th grade will certainly not be the best time to observe...), I felt as though only my management mistakes were being pointed out, and believe me, I'm fully aware of things I should have done differently from the start. On the same day, though, my 7th graders were their usual awesome selves, and I got a stellar observation from my assistant principal. I am doing some things much better than I used to, and I wish that had been acknowledged.

And then, I had the same child swear at me twice in the same day, so I wrote him up, causing his mother to fly into an outrage, call the school, and then hang up on the middle school dean. Friday morning, I had to have a meeting with the family to "settle the matter," during which the child lied and said he didn't swear, his parents believed him, wanted to call his friends in as "witnesses" (though we all know they won't say anything about their friend), and basically insinuated that I was out to get this child. This is the second time this has been an issue in my class, where this child has said something and then lied to his parents and said I made it up, and it just boggles my mind that they believe him. My assistant principal launched an "investigation," in which all the other kids (predictably) said they didn't hear anything (or they heard something that may have been disrespectful but they're not sure), so instead of getting a suspension (which is what another child got when he was disrespectful to the principal) he got detention on Monday. It's a bad precedent to set in my classroom and I am not happy about it.

And finally, some of my 7th graders stole the answer sheet to the reading level test, which made me angry because I feel like I have a better relationship with them than that. It did get returned, anonymously, at the end of the day, so at least that's a bright spot.

But it was one of those weeks where I can see why these schools have trouble keeping teachers, especially if they don't really feel like the administrators have their backs. When there's a double standard for disrespect to the teacher and to the principal, that sends a pretty awful message to the students about the teachers. It's really too bad that, with all the issues urban districts face, a lot of the times the schools are shooting themselves in the foot.