Year End Rating

This will likely be the second year in a row that it’s under par. 

I had great classes this year and worked hard but I had crappy observations which served as overarching snapshots for inclusion in my annual rating documents.

On the positive side, my students I was correlated to performed extremely well on their English Regents state exam.

At the end of the day, I sleep well at night knowing that I’ve done, and continue to do, the best I can with the level of resources and support that I’ve had.

After a great class, I was criticized for the execution. It really wasn’t fair, but I know better than to spend hours coming back with documented rebuttals. At the end of the day, they’ll seek and find whatever issues they want.

The grass is greener on the other side.

Last Week of School

It’s the last week of school and it’s a lot of waiting around and busy work involving doing coverages for the middle school (babysitting) and attending legalistic meetings.

I’ve disagreed with the assessments ascertained through my observations this year – no different from the last – and while it’s humbling to not get rave reviews, I’m trying to stay polite in the face of professional frustration. 

Grades are in and thankfully the testing week is drawing to a close, leaving behind the middle school. Speaking of the middle school, last week a seventh grader knocked my passenger mirror off playing outside my car. The irony is that I “won” one of the school’s lottery-determined parking spots for the month of June.

I’ll be glad when this week is over and I’ll post more about what I’m doing then. 

Have a great week everyone!

Three Weeks Left

Thank God I made it through another week and there’s only a few more to the school year, and even less actual teaching days before state test proctoring.

This week came the review from my principal’s observation last month, (Jumping Through Hoops) which was scathing and really laid into me.

Nonetheless, I’d expected as much, and the show must go on.

We had two professional development days and three teaching days last week.
Validation came from a paraprofessional who I work with who said that she thought it was a good year for the tenth grade in English. Despite the challenges of the year, this felt good. Whatever success we had was due to the fantastic teamwork of the colleagues I work with so closely, (and hopefully a bit of my own efforts as well!)

We also got word that a student possibly drowned during a field trip to the Poconos, to later be told that he had survived and was okay in the hospital, thank God.

Altogether a stressful week. Three more weeks of showing up, and clocking in and clocking out.