Politics of teaching

Just over a week ago, I received a phone call at home from my principal at 9:15pm. Odd. The call itself was from the twilight zone. The night before I had attended a Parent Teacher Organization meeting at school where the principal announced that starting in Fall 2009 New Visions Academy would no longer serve students from Kindergarten through eighth grade, instead it would stop at sixth grade. I am the sixth grade teacher and had no knowledge or clue that this was even a possibility so I was justifiably surprised and shared my surprise. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not good at hiding my emotions, reactions or feelings. I am nothing if not genuine-some consider it a fault, some a strength. The meeting and the events thereafter were essentially uneventful.

I didn't really speak to anyone other than our school social worker-I told him I was concerned about how my students would react to the news and asked if anything was being planned to help them adjust and prepare for the transition. Of course, people heard my questions, nothing was inappropriate. I did state that I thought it was disrespectful to the staff that the announcement was made at the PTO meeting first without any consideration as to how we might react. I said I thought it would have been better to inform teachers first-especially since some of us would be losing our positions for the following year due to the change.

Well back to the phone call. My principal told me that I was being put on "Administrative Leave" because a parent had called the superintendent and made a complaint about something I said. She did not know what the accusation was-or at least claimed not to know-and said she would call me the next day with the needed information after she had her meeting with the superintendent. That was a Wednesday. I heard nothing of the accusations against me until Friday when the conversation at the PTO meeting was not even mentioned. Now, it seems, there was a plethora of negative accusations coming out against me. How did this occur? Hell if I know.

According to my principal, she put me on paid administrative leave to resolve the issue from the PTO meeting quietly so that no one would gossip or get involved and to protect me. Hmmmm....lets ponder this together for a moment. If the issue was about the PTO meeting and nothing else was being discussed to protect me, how did all of these other 'issues' come about? I'll tell you how-gossipy, insecure women who can not leave people alone.

Our conversation on Friday April 17th-yes my birthday Happy Birthday to me!-knocked the wind out of me. It seems, that through her investigation into the PTO issue, which we already stated was private (please notice the sarcasm here), there were three issues that needed to be addressed regarding me. Issue 1: a testing conversation I had with another teacher. Mind you, this other teacher was not put on administrative leave and was allowed to fully defend or explain the conversation before anyone spoke to me. That situation was this: after school on a day when we had state testing, Jackie asked me how testing went. I said, "It went well, a student even told me he used strategies I taught him on the test. He told me he made sure he had two opinions and two examples from the story." As we were talking, the person in charge of testing was walking by and obviously eavesdropping because she stopped what she was doing and came into the room and told us that if a testing authority had been there and heard what we said, we would be in HUGE trouble. I asked why, she shrugged and walked away. Well....this conversation which I still don't understand what the problem with it was because no one will explain it to me or allow me to say what it was that I said...has become one of the three nails in the coffin of my teaching career at New Visions Academy.

Nail number 2 was the accusation that I did not get permission slips for a movie that I showed to my class before spring break. The school policy is that to show a movie that is rated PG or higher, a teacher needs to get permission slips signed by parents or guardians. This is the crazy thing, a teacher at the school who has been rude to me since day one, gave me crap about handing out the permission slips but then someone else decided to tell the principal that I never got parental permission to show the movie. Ridiculous, yes! Of course, for ten days people at school were all being interviewed and talked to about this situation but I was not-remember, I was on administrative leave for my own protection. I did get signed permission slips and, unfortunately, I threw them away. I realize now I will never ever throw anything away again-but it was just before spring break and I was getting ready to have surgery and was trying to get the room and my desk and everything cleaned and organized to make things easier when I got back from break. This is the crazy thing too, the movie was "A Wrinkle in Time" and the students asked to see it because I had read them the book and they really truly enjoyed the book. Did I make a mistake not keeping the slips? Yes. Is it worth me losing my job over because someone is petty and doesn't like me for whatever reason and doesn't even know what they are talking about? No. Again, I was not allowed to go to my classroom to find the check list where I checked off names of students whose slips I got. Remember too, the slips were passed out on April 1st and the 'investigation' is occurring on April 21st-after spring break, after testing, three weeks later. And, of course, no one knew what was going on because I was out of the building on administrative leave for my protection...yet somehow....an issue from the PTO meeting turned into an issue about permission slips.....hmmmm...how might that happen?????

The final nail in the coffin of my teaching job is special education modifications and this one seriously cracks me up. See, at New Visions there are special education teachers and regular education teachers. I was the regular education teacher for 5th and 6th grade. More than 50% of my students have some form of special education services whether it be emotional/behavioral issues or learning disabilities. I am responsible for a total of 60 students throughout my day (1st grade reading group, 5th grade, 6th grade and a middle school reading group). The special education teachers are responsible for 10 to 12 who they work with either one on one or in very small groups throughout the day when they are pulled out of the regular education teacher's classes. Here's the kicker, at the start of the year I had been modifying spelling lists and other assignments for my SPED students like I was supposed to, then I was told by two different special education teachers that I was doing it wrong so, they said they would do it. Silly me to trust coworkers! Well, when it came out that a student wasn't getting spelling grades who got blamed? Oh yes, you got it! ME! Not his special education teacher who sees him for 45 minutes for reading every friggen day but me who sees him (in a class of 19 other students) every day for less than 15 minutes. At this school, teachers are expected to focus on the special ed kids to the detriment of the other students. Literally, these students in question, are with me for 10 to 15 minutes of reading time a day then they are with their special education teacher either one on one or in a small group (2 or 3 kids who have similar needs). These teachers said they would handle the modifications and who gets screwed? Me.

Its simply insane. One of these special education teachers belittled me in front of my students, told me I was doing modifications wrong, refused to help me, sent me demeaning, unprofessional emails on a weekly basis and because I was mature and chose to ignore the pettiness and focus on my job, I get fired.

This is the kicker, this teacher, who I know is behind two of the three issues that got me fired, is not my boss. She is not my supervisor. She has never been in my classroom, she doesn't even have her Special Education certification that I am aware of, has never taught at a different school and doesn't have her master's degree. Yet, she has the power of influence over this staff with her cronies to push people they don't like out. The real issue I think, was that these two teachers who had only taught in the small world of new visions, were intimidated by someone who knows what else is out there and doesn't bow to them. Of course, there is no way to prove that. And I am trying really really hard not to be bitter and angry...but its hard. I worked so hard to become a teacher and I love my job but I can't deal with the pettiness that surrounds me. Why can't people just let me do my job and give me the benefit of the doubt? I mean really, does someone have to babysit me and report on things like permission slips for movies when they don't know what they are talking about? Why not just ask me? Why not offer to help the new teacher at school to learn the policies? Why cause the drama? Its exhausting......

So, I was fired effective last Friday but was not even given the professional courtesy of being notified of this termination by phone, oh no, I got a letter in the mail. My principal had 2 or 3 short conversations with me over the phone while doing her so called investigation honestly expecting me to believe that no one at school knows what is going on or is involved. Its insane that I was not allowed to be a part of any of these meetings discussing my accusations. I was not allowed to face my accusers or defend myself at all. The decision was made by someone that I needed to go, so they spent ten days drumming up enough information to, in their minds, justifiably fire me. Its disheartening to say the least and honestly, I am not sure where to go from here. None of the accusations against me have anything to do with my teaching ability or the impact I have on students. I am a good teacher. My students are challenged by me academically, intellectually, socially. They are better off because I was their teacher, and what makes me really sad is, now I am just another teacher/adult who abandoned them. I was not allowed to say anything to my students, to say goodbye-nothing. At this point in time I am still waiting for permission to return to the school to get my personal belongings. Its going on two weeks and they can't even allow me to get my stuff. It really is ridiculous, unprofessional and sad. I know I will be okay, I always land on my feet, I'm tenacious and blessed. The thing that sucks, is that all of this drama affects the kids the most.