Tuesday, July 13, 2010

A Tale Of Many Teachers


The teacher had enough and walked out. The stress she was under was taking a toll on her health and she needed to be away. She cared about her classes, but she cared (rightly so) about her own health more.

The school was left in a dilemma. They needed a sub, a competent individual who could teach the classes and help the kids succeed. For over a week, each class had a different teacher every day. Then, for almost three weeks. different teachers from the department covered the classes. The kids were learning but it was hard on these teachers having to teach a 6th (or in one case a 7th) class every day. Finally, a young man was hired. He was fresh out of student teaching, still learning, but enthusiastic and hard working. He came to class every day, well prepared. He did what he had been taught to do about discipline problems. Many of the kids liked him and were happy he was present. Some did not. The school did not like the way he sent kids to the office for cell phone and other offenses. He was given no administrative support. The administration then decided to fire this young man and hire another inexperienced person to take his place. (This is the person the school wanted in the first place but could not hire because of a license problem.) This person was the 5th teacher of the term. The students were upset. They listened to her less than they listened to the young man.

Two weeks later, the term ended.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When I first started out, I was told by other teachers to keep a lid on the class and not bother the administration unless absolutely necessary (even though it's their job to support teachers and enforce discipline).

Too bad no one was their to mentor this young man. But from reading this post, I doubt it would have mattered if he was teacher of the year because he was just "holding" the spot for someone else.

Chaz said...

Remember it is "children last" and administration first.