Too Much Pressure

Arome was awful today. She held her own class at the back of the room. She did no class work and she refused to stop talking. What am I supposed to do now?
Macolm got suspended today. He showed up at the bus stop with a BB gun. Then, he shot Shauna in the neck with it. This will probably be the last of him for the school year. It’s too bad. I just talked to him about bringing his grade up fourth quarter so that he won’t have to go to summer school. He seemed up to the challenge. Now, I feel like I’ve wasted all the time I spent on him this year. Mr. Burns just had a talk with him, too. Mr. Burns gave him a new notebook and everything. It seems that Malcolm was failing all his classes and really needed to do better this quarter. He’s smart enough to do it. Maybe the pressure was just too much.

Incidents and Allegations

I talked to the principal on Friday about the incident with Arome. She was assigned one day of In-School-Suspension on Thursday and they held her out of my class on Friday. It’s disappointing. I would think that a threat to a teacher would get more serious consequences than that. Arome’s mother showed up during the school day and demanded to talk to me. She told the principal that I had provoked Arome. The principal told her that he couldn’t interrupt my class (at least he got that right) and then interrupted my class to ask if I could meet with her after school. It didn’t seem like I had a choice so I said I would. A few minutes later, the office secretary also interrupted class. Arome’s mother couldn’t meet after school, how about first thing before school on Monday morning?
I agonized over the meeting all weekend. What was I going to say? What if she was hostile (the principal told me that she was hard to handle one-on-one)? Why wasn’t I getting more support from the principal? Does he think I’m in competent? Does he want me to work at the school?
I thought about taking Arome to court. After all, she did threaten me. The school didn’t seem to take it very seriously. One day of In-School-Suspension? She could be in jail! Maybe a court case would force the school to take these incidents more seriously.
I arrived at school early today for the meeting. The first person I saw was the principal. He was heading into another meeting. It turned out that he didn’t know anything about my meeting. It looked like I was going to have to do the conference alone. I went to my room and collected my trump card. Earlier, I had confiscated a notebook from Arome. The notebook was full of obscene and perverted things that she had written in class. I placed the notebook in my binder in case the conference got nasty. If Arome’s mother claimed that Arome was an angel and I was the problem then I could give her the notebook. It was time for the meeting. I prayed and then headed to the office. I didn’t want to meet in my classroom with nobody around.
Arome was there. So were her mother and a man. Her stepfather? Grandfather? It looked like a three-on-one. We went into the conference room together. There was an awkward moment of silence and then I started telling my story. First, I told them how I had worried about Arome all weekend and that I hoped this conference would resolve things so that she could get back to the business of being a student. I was hoping to defuse the situation a little. Then, I started a couple of weeks back. I told them about the comments that Arome was making in class. She tried to interrupt but her mother stopped her. I told the whole story and I’m sure that it sounded different coming out of my mouth than it had out of hers. Arome tried to interject comments along the way. Each time, her mother stopped her.
There was a knock at the door. The principals wanted to use the conference room for a meeting. Could we move to another room? We stood up to move. The man shook my hand, “Sorry to waste your time, Mr. Moore.” He and Arome’s mother left. Arome walked off to the cafeteria. I stood there uncertain. What had just happened?
I’m still not sure. Did they believe me? Why wasn’t there a confrontation? Why didn’t they reprimand Arome? What did it mean? My trump card was unplayed. Did I win the hand? I guess we’ll see how Arome behaves next class.

Someone is Always Willing to Take a Bad Student's Place

Arome slipped out of the middle of class today. I had kicked her friend, Tasha, out of class. Suddenly, I realized that Arome was gone too. She tried to sneak back into the room but I caught her and wouldn’t let her in. She started screaming into the room. There were only a couple of minutes left in class so I just ignored her. By the time class was over and she came in to collect her things, she was steaming mad. She got up in my face and told me, “I’m going to smack the fuck out of you!”
It was in front of several students, which is even worse. The principal knows about it now. We’ll see what he does. I don’t know what’s wrong with Arome. It’s like she snapped. One day she just woke up and decided she hates me. Ms. Liger said that at about the same time Arome has decided that she loves Ms. Liger.
We thought that if we got rid of one or two students then everything would be great. Now it seems like someone is always willing to take the bad student's place.

Well, You Was Talking Too

I put a couple of girls out of class today. They were being incredibly rude and refused to stop talking. One of them, Arome, yelled back at me, “Well, you was talking too!” As if she doesn’t understand that it might be OK for a teacher to talk to the class but not OK for students to be talking to each other. She also told me, “I’m getting real tired of you.”
It’s hurtful. I’ve tried so hard to make class fun and interesting. It makes me feel unappreciated. If I’m going to get constant disrespect then why bother teaching? I can understand why 50% of teachers leave teaching in the first five years. I can understand why teachers leave our school. I can understand how this hurts our students. Do our students and their parents understand it?

Why Teachers Cheat on Tests

Ms. Jefferson gave her students answers to the quarterly test. One of her students told on her. When she was confronted about it she said that everyone in the department was doing it. Now it looks like she’s going down. She has to meet with Human Resources.
It’s a bad situation. She got behind because one of her parents (who is former School Board) asked what the city’s policy on evolution is. Ms. Jefferson emailed the city to ask and they couldn’t come up with an answer for two weeks. She got behind because she couldn’t teach evolution. Then, the test came in with a huge number of questions on it from the few things she hadn’t covered. She gave the answers to the questions she hadn’t covered. She shouldn’t have done it. Still, I feel bad for her. It’s her first year in the school and she’s been under constant fire from parents.
Ms. Lupe’s “permanent” sub resigned too. Ever since Ms. Lupe resigned there has been an ever-changing face covering class for her. I don’t think her students are learning much of anything now. It’s a constant battle.

Time to Watch My Back and Be Quiet

The head principal called me out of the middle of class yesterday. She and an assistant questioned me in the hallway,
“Did you give out answers to the quarterly test? Were you instructed by the department to give out answers? Were you told to curve the test? When did you give the test? Did the other science teachers give it the same days?”
After the interrogation was done, they let me go back to class. I didn’t really feel like teaching anymore. I didn’t do anything wrong. Something is going down and I have no idea what it is. It's time to watch my back and be quiet. This is the first conversation I’ve had with the head principal in months. It’s the longest conversation that I’ve ever had with her.
Rodney continues to be a problem. His mother asked what his grade was. I told her that it was still an “F” because he hasn’t handed in any of the make-up work I gave him. She asked me to give him new copies of the work.

Too Much Time on This Kid

Rodney skipped class today. I thought he was just absent and it was very pleasant. About halfway through class, however, Ms. Liger called and said that he was interrupting her class. He claimed that I had given him a pass to clean out his locker. I got an email response from his mother today. It sounds like she wants to have a conference. I sure hope not. I feel like I’ve spent way too much time on this kid and most of it has been wasted.

Has a Problem With Women

After LaToya’s mother talked to me yesterday she got called back into school. LaToya’s younger sister was in trouble. Apparently, LaToya’s mother went crazy. She completely lost it in front of the principal and school police officer. I don’t know the details of what happened but it must have been bad because LaToya’s mother is no longer allowed on school grounds. It’s a little scary. Just a couple of hours earlier she was talking to me. If she can’t control herself in front of the police then what could I have done if she had gone crazy on me? Everyone pushes parent conferences but sometimes I don’t think it’s a good idea.
I found a mound of sunflower seed that someone had spit on the floor of my classroom. I managed to trace them back to Rodney. Today, I made him pick up every trace of sunflower seed that I could find. Apparently, Ms. Liger had the same problem and did the same thing. I emailed Rodney’s mother and told her what he had done. We’ll see what happens.
The principal is talking about giving me a new student. He’ll be transferred from his current science teacher because he “has a problem with women.” I’m not sure that’s a good reason to move a student but we’ll see. Apparently, he’s fifteen years old because he’s been held back a couple of times. This should be interesting.

What Do Counselors Do?

LaToya’s mother came in today and we talked about the cell phone. She claimed that she had to talk to someone at the school. Supposedly, she called all the numbers but no one answered so she called LaToya’s cell phone. I don’t think that I believe her but she agreed that LaToya’s phone should not go off in class. Hopefully, that’s all resolved now.
I have my last class tonight. If I weren’t so tired then I’d probably be excited. I’ve waited so long to be done with my education courses and now it’s finally looking like a reality. I finished my homework this morning during planning time.
Rodney got suspended again. He had all the test answers written on his hand in language arts class. Kanika showed up for language arts class with her pupils dilated and acting stoned. Mrs. Liger took her to the counselor. The counselor just let her go back to class. She said that she was busy and couldn’t talk to Kanika. What do counselors do?

Another Teacher Resigns

Ms. Lupe is gone. When I came into the school Mr. Burns was looking for me. He introduced me to some woman I’ve never seen before and told me she was Ms. Lupe’s replacement. Could I please help her with some lesson plans for science? Ms. Lupe resigned! I knew that it had been a rough year for her but I had no idea that it was going that bad.
I took LaToya’s cell phone from her. It went off during class. She argued with me and didn’t want to give it up. She kept coming back and arguing with me about it. She finally stormed off, cussing at me under her breath. Then, I found out that this is the second time in as many days that she has lost it. It went off in Ms. Liger’s class the day before and LaToya went through the same routine. I had a phone message from LaToya’s mom, my first all year. I called back but she wasn’t there. I hope this isn’t about the phone. I wish parents were as concerned about grades as they are about cell phones.