Dealing With The Undealables

Regents proctoring reminds me of one of my all time least favorite APs.  I dreaded proctoring exams in her department and always begged for any other assignments.  Anyway, this post is for those who work in schools where the administrators have sticks a little to high up their butts with a little bit of advice on how to deal with them.

Prunella was in charge of one of the larger departments in our school. As you can see from her name, she was not a happy, smiling person. She terrorized her department and tried to do the same to everyone she came in contact with.

Prunella tried this on me a number of times. She was never successful.

Time 1: I returned regents exams. Although there were no instructions in the envelope, Prunella expected certain things to happen before she accepted the exams. We had to wait on long lines to hand them in. When my turn came, she complained that my papers were not in alphabetical order. I told her that there was no place that said I should alphabetize them. She said I had to sit and put them in order. I told her the only thing I had to do was go to lunch as I only had 30 minutes until my next assignment started and I left. She threatened to report me. I laughed and kept walking.  Nothing happened.   She knew I was right.

Time 2: Prunella came into a room was proctoring in and started screaming at me for some exam infraction she supposedly saw me commit. I went to the principal (pre-Suit) at that time and said that even if I am wrong, I should not be admonished that way, in front of students. He agreed. She ended up getting spoken to for her actions.

Time 3: I was teaching a 7-8 split program with a living environment teacher. The kids were difficult. Without notice, Prunella changed the days each class met. I found out about the change from the kids, was not prepared for the group I was given and the class was a disaster. I went to the principal (different one). Prunella was really given it this time and she apologized to me. She even was nice to me for a few weeks.

I used to see Prunella walking down the hall and hold the door for her. I watched her burn slowly. I always said you are welcome to her unsaid thank you. I managed to beat her at her own game.