Holding on for four More months, or pulling the plug?

That's a blessing. At this school, there are no consequences for the students. We have a new "meditation" room for the students when they're acting up. Since this room opened, kids have been purposely trying to get in trouble just to go there. It gives them the opportunity to catch up with their friends and be on their phones.

 

So that is the only reason you failed the observation?

I don’t know how it works at your school, but the evaluators at each district I have been at use a matrix containing the specific teacher competencies to be evaluated with numerical scores to be marked for each competency. Therefore, failing an observation would require being marked low in multiple competencies, not just one. Additionally, comments are usually written to provide specific details from the observation as to the justification behind the marks given.

That is why I am skeptical when you say you failed the observation simply because your lesson was too challenging. I feel like that is not the whole story. Did your formal observation simply contain the sentence, “Your lesson was too challenging, therefore you fail?”

 

She said, "I know I told you to be rigorous, but I didn't want you to slap our kids in the face with that assignment!" Mind you, the other ELA teachers in the department have used the SAME EXACT lesson as is customary at our school to share lesson plans. They all received "Highly Effective" on the Danielson Rubric. Even during our post-observation, she was on her cellphone the whole time, wouldn't look at my artifacts or lesson plans, etc. Also, this is my class that has 30 students, five of which need IEP's and in-class support, four of which have horrific behavioral issues. She said to me, "Wow, I don't know how you stand it. Maybe you can tolerate being disrespected, but I couldn't!" She just didn't want to hire another English teacher, so I inherited the kids of the ELA teacher that quit a few months ago. I was literally in her office for 2 minutes. And she also mentioned that I'm inappropriate with the kids by using slang, like "You've got this! You can totally do it” when telling them about the assignment.

 

Private schools / Independent schools are the way to go. I love teaching at one and I recommend @LittleShakespeare look for a job at one. With your credentials (MA in Literature), you could find a placement. Contact a placement agency like Carnie Sandoe & Associates. It's free for you. I also suffered teaching in a public school and I'd never go back.

 

A meditation room? That has to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of (nothing against you, mind you). At my school, we have what is called an in-school suspension room and students who enter are put into total isolation, except in the event of an emergency of course.

I don’t know why public schools don’t punish or refuse to punish their troublemakers. At my school, we “throw the book at them” if they step out of line, in a manner of speaking. In fact, we take away all privileges and severely restrict them in every possible way and make it as miserable as possible for them. This nearly ensures that students don’t do it again because who wants to hear and not experience firsthand how awesome a sports rally was and to spend their Saturday morning cleaning EVERY classroom in the high school (vacuuming, wiping down desks, and picking up trash) for three hours (and if you miss it you are suspended for 1 day and assigned another Saturday School). Oh, and did I mention that if you are suspended that you receive a zero in the gradebook for ALL missed work that day?

 

Naturally you have to consider the area, too. My school is a public school, and there is no refusal to punish students. There has only ever been one private school here, and I’d never have taught there because there was no job security, low pay, lax standards, and lots of troublemaker kids. You’ve got to know the area where you want to teach to see what would be the best fit.

One of my friends is a homeschool enrichment teacher. She gave up teaching, and now she works part time teaching small group activities for local homeschool parents.

OP, have you considered home/hospital teaching? I did that one year, and I loved it. I got to work one on-one with kids, and I didn’t have to stay in the building all day. I did it many years ago before internet, so I’d imagine it would be even easier now that I could access email and internet with students.

 

I believe that in some states, politicians somehow determined that the amount of discipline referrals should factor into how schools are graded. You can connect the dots to see why some of these “creative solutions” have come up to address disruptive kids...

 

Lovely.

 

Yeah, it’s crazy. I plan to write a book someday about this place. I can see the finish line. If I had it my way, I would have left now. But we are already short on ELA teachers, and I’d have to wait 60 days anyway. I might as well save up that money and not risk leaving mid-year, even though I will not be returning to secondary ed for about a million years.

 

I’ve thought about it, but I’m kind of done with teaching, to be honest. Never did I imagine it to be like this: working on the weekends and weeknights, worrying nonstop till June, having an anxiety attack every morning because you’re not sure if your lesson plan is good enough, crying myself to sleep every Sunday, wishing that I’d get hit by a truck instead of going to work, etc. I’m an introvert, so I’d much rather find a job that allows me to focus on my books at a more relaxed pace. Teaching is truly not what I thought it would be, and a wonderful user here told me I can totally share my passion for books in a different profession. I just have to find it.

 

I think you would think differently if you didn’t have to deal with thugs, miscreants, and unsupportive admin at your job. You might’ve actually liked it had that not been the case and it’s a shame that this experience tainted the teaching profession for you. The location and toxicity’s in one’s environment, or lack thereof, really does make a difference.

 

The Obama 2014 "Dear Colleague" letter comes to mind. It prodded schools to reduce the number of suspensions, especially for minorities.

 

Quit it, if it's not making you happy.

 

Already did.

 

I know this may seem insensitive- but I honestly think that most of that social skills and meditation crap only works for students who developmental delays- NOT students with a violent or disrespectful dispositions. Kids aren't dumb. Sending them to a room for "quiet time" like a toddler is moronic. That's not a consequence for disrespect and defiance!

I am seeing more and more students catching on to the loop-holes in the system and using it to their advantage. I was seeing red today because I have been dealing with student disrespect all year on a daily basis (leading to very unsafe situations) and NOTHING is done about it except for that fluffy feel-good crap where we all sit around and talk about how that made us feel.....ugh! I am so over it. The students know that nothing too terrible is going to happen to them for telling you to stuff it. So the behavior continues and gets worse.

I am counting down the days until summer break. I went to private school and going to teach in public school was a BIG eye-opener. I wish I could afford to work at a private school.

 

Public schools are a joke. You can definitely teach at a private school. Why not? I want to go back to school for something totally different. The sky is the limit.

I wish you luck with the remainder of your school year. You’re a lot tougher than I am. I hung up the gloves. Just didn’t want to fight anymore in a school that wouldn’t fight for me.