Loser--You Had 3 Failures In Your Class

The department supervisor loved Ms. K.  She was young and pretty and jumped when he said jump.  She revered him and thought of him as a father.  When Ms. K went to the supervisor and asked for advice on how to handle some failing students, he said, "Don't worry.  I will take them out of your class and give them to Mrs. R.  And, to keep classes balanced, I will take some of Mrs. R's best students to replace them.  Ms. K was so grateful, she kissed his feet and promised him extra ass wiping whenever his bowel movements were irregular.

Mrs. R never kissed his feet or wiped his behind, but she was a good teacher.  When regents were graded, Mrs. R had 30 out of 34 students pass.  Many of those passing had never passed this class in the past so she was very proud of herself.  Her supervisor was not pleased.  "Mrs. R, why is it that every other teacher only has 1 or 0 failures.  You are the worst teacher in the department.  I wish you would retire."

Mrs. R learned that arguing with him was futile.  She just turned her back and walked away with her head held high.  The supervisor was an idiot.  Everyone in the school held the same opinion. 

Some Things Never Change



My former colleague, in an attempt to show Mr.AP how wrong he was about her, forwarded him this e-mail.  He replied saying an effective teacher will be able to move every child forward. She laughed when she read it and wondered if he now considered her effective.  I personally don't feel his opinion of her, or of any of us has changed.

To me, his e-mail said "big deal, anyone can do this and if they don't they shouldn't be teaching."

He always was and will always be clueless.  There are kids that, for many reasons, no one will ever reach.  This says nothing about the effectiveness of the teacher.

I wish he would get his head out of his ass and just do what he does best--keeping the copy machine running.  I know she did a great job.  Kudos to this professor.

What Did You Forget To Teach?

 



Angela was a student of mine in an algebra class several years ago.  She was extremely bright and very hard working.  It was evident from her grades and from observations that she loved school and loved learning.  I had no doubt in my mind that she would do extremely well on the regents.  (At that time the regents was a much more meaningful exam than it is today.)

I remember sitting in the marking room as we passed around papers.  Someone announced the paper presently being marked (Angela's) was perfect with one question to go and then handed me the exam.  The problem Angela chose to do (there were choices in those days) was done perfectly except for one tiny arithmetic mistake.  Angela added 2 + 1 and wrote 4.  It broke my heart, but I dutifully took off the point and put the 99 on top.  I saw Angela several days later and explained her mistake.  She laughed it off and said she was very happy with the 99.  I was happy for her as she had truly mastered the course.

Today things are different.  I remember departmental conferences where the AP ranted at the staff because kids got 98 and 99.  He told the teachers to think about what they had taught and what they had failed to teach because these topics were the ones that prevented more students from getting 100s.  I didn't bother to argue with him.  To me, he sounded too ridiculous to even respond to.

I feel for the teachers still sitting at these department meetings.  I am afraid their ratings will be lowered because of 98s and 99s as long as this nut job is in charge of the department.

Angela was much brighter than this AP.  I don't know what she ended up doing.  I pray she did not become a teacher.  I would hate to see her subjected to this measure of her value.