work update (positive! vent)

[Guest guest]

This stuff happened Friday, but things have been so hectic this

weekend, and I also needed time to get this into language (nice to be

around people who would understand that last part of this

statement...).

My principal appears to be coming around a bit!

Ah, where to begin...

Well, there's this clique of a few teachers in my building who are

resistant to the way things are going in special education. They have

been bullying me for the last few years and diverting administrative

attention away from their own faults by setting me up for trouble. And

being successful at it. Because of them, with this particular teacher

I had problems with last week being one of the leaders, I can't call

rooms if the kids don't show (disrupts instruction), etc.

One of these teachers has three (count 'em.... THREE) kids in her room

with special needs. She's not been sending them to me on their

schedules, all while griping that she has no time to work with them at

their levels and they need to be out of the regular ed classroom. Two

are within a year of grade level for their deficit areas, and should

be fully supported by all those working with them toward transition.

The third is not too far behind the others, but just started

programming.

Before taking this issue farther, I tried to " make nice " and address

this issue with her without pulling in administration. So, on Friday

morning I caught her in the front office and tried, with a lot of

soft-voice, carefully and consciously framed sincere-body-

language, " I hope you don't mind, I thought you should be aware of, "

and " it could be helpful if... " statements regarding supporting the

students' in following their schedules and getting to my program on

time. I noted that in the first grading period they'd lost 8 to 10

hours of IEP- mandated Resource time, and we were going to owe

compensatory services... but now the schedules were stable so

hopefully we could get off to a fresh start next week....

I got an earful from her about how SHE has to keep track of 22 kids

(my caseload is 23 right now and will be adding more later this

month), and keep her instructional schedule (I have kids rotating

through my room on staggered schedules with lessons changing every 15

or 30 minutes), and that she is TEACHING in her room, not just

playing around or whatever. That now SHE is responsible for their

reading (last year she refused to work with any child labeled " sped "

even if they only saw me 3 hours per week and were working at grade

level, but that got " fixed " this year), and I'm pulling them out to

do NOTHING, etc. etc. ad nauseum. She constantly swears she has a

Master's degree in special education from 1995... but I personally

feel a Cracker Jack box paper is not proof of degree, and she doesn't

even know the vocabulary, let alone the methodology, etc. (not that

I've said that to her... but perhaps I should find a " polite " way

sometime or other... perhaps if/when they let her go and I can call

out niceties to her on her way out the door...LOL!).

She said that I was responsible for making sure the boys left HER room

on time, and perhaps I should go down and talk with them in her room,

and come get them at their times if I wanted them to come so badly

(like their coming to me is a favor to me and not services to them).

At first, I tried to respond politely, but as she kept the comments

coming about how I'm not teaching and don't do anything, I finally

lost my cool and suggested that 1) she come observe my room to SEE

what " nothing " entails, 2) that the boys' time is IEP mandated, and 3)

they are in her room at the time in question, and I have kids from

8:45 am to 2:45 pm without letup. My assistant is circulating in half

hour increments through 12 regular classrooms on IEP mandated support

time and does not have breaks that would allow her to get the kids

for me. AND those kids are right there in HER classroom, with a

clock, a schedule, and a grown-up right there to remind them and

everything.

I very carefully, even then, did NOT say that she was the only teacher

in the building with this level of problem in sending the kids to

me... even with the others in her clique... I'm learning some tricks,

anyway.

She started repeating herself, so I then said I'd let our principal

handle this situation, and walked off fuming with this teacher having

a big grin on her face... because based on the last four years she

thought she was about to see me get in trouble with the administration

again. She made sure to try to catch both the instructional leader and

the principal before me... and this time things were different.

She was wrong about their reactions to the situation.

I met with them after she left them, and they believed ME when, in

spite of her accusation that I just walked up and started screaming at

her out of nowhere, I stated that I had started out polite and had

thought things out ahead of time (they know what that means now, and

have seen the effective scripting I use do things like calm hysterical

parents), yes, I'd started to lose my cool after several minutes

because of the insults to my program, and her expressed disdain for

the kids, and that when she had kept pushing I had ended the

conversation and told her I would discuss it with the principal...

Friday afternoon, it was decided that if the kids were one minute

overdue, I would call her room as a reminder. The administrators

cleared the teacher's phone voice mail so THEY could effectively track

this, and also ordered her to clean up her email.

Before the afternoon meeting, my principal sat down with me separately

and defined my role with me for the meeting (I would stay quiet NO

MATTER WHAT the other teacher said, and only respond directly to the

principal's direct questions and statements to me; and trust that the

goal is to get the kids to my program so whatever is said, to hang on

to the idea that the principal knows exactly what is going on...). I

agreed, making her and the instructional leader laugh by saying I

could keep my mouth shut but turing beet red at certain things was

out of my control... I then calmed myself before going in, and

actually was a bit humored to see the instructional leader (sort an

assistant principal)seat herself between me and the other teacher as

a buffer zone so I didn't have to directly interact with her.

Many things were said by the other teacher that were horrible,

unprofessional, and insulting... not just in private, but the idiot

actually said these things in the afternoon meeting. Things like

saying that she's taken a lot of my job off my shoulders because

she's using and modifying her own materials with these kids (um...

that's what inclusion is)... at which the principal pointed out that

I help other teachers with modification of their materials if that's

a problem, and the teacher responded that she knows how to modify

like that but that I'm not doing my part in getting her different

work for the kids...

essentially admiting she wanted busy work packets from me so she

wouldn't have to work with them... and so on. For most of it, the

principal and instructional leader were smiling and nodding at her,

sharing their own problems with included kids when they were in the

classroom as teachers and how the new laws don't take reality into

consideration ... and then redirecting her with " well, we need to stay

focused on our concern right now, which is ensuring those kids get to

Mrs. Sarabia's on time... " AND getting in things like confirming that

there IS instruction happening in my room, they've observed it and

everything!

The difference was, the administrators had been trained a little in

special ed law over the summer, my effort to transfer out of the

building at the beginning of the year shook things up, and they also

had a clue that I could not effectively finesse this teacher, respond

effectively to her behaviors, or truly understand the nuances of how

they were handling it, except to let me know privately that no matter

what it looked like on the surface during the meeting, they value me

and know that I'm doing a great job, and to trust them that they were

supporting me in this. Evidently, they've had problems with her in

other areas, too.

I was assured later on by the instructional leader that I should keep

my documenatation as I have been doing, make sure to call on time to

the other teacher's room as needed, and trust that just because they

didn't stop her from saying those terrible things didn't mean they

agreed with them... but were allowing her to fully express herself for

their own documentation if/when she faces discipline later.

It felt darn good.

S.