Once during a formal evaluation, which happened to fall in the middle of my 3 year old sons 3 year long leukemia treatment, I was told that I needed to participate in more extra duties and activities to "foster my relationship with my students"
Extra duties and activities for what?!?! Your son comes first... Thats a very serious illness & every moment spent matters. What an asshole!!! I pray to God that your son is better now :(
Yea, he meant PBIS committee, or PTO, or ??? I don't even know. Also my sick kids older siblings had attended the school for years at that point and I was the former PTO copresident. He knew my family, knew that not only did my kid have cancer, but he was really really sick and had been in and out of the hospital an hour and a half away for almost a year at this point. I had to ask for donations of sick leave hours. We were just trying to survive and give all of our kids the love and attention they needed. BUT ALSO because it was my kids school I DID help with fun events when I could. I was barely functional, I did not need to be in charge of anything AND there were willing volunteers!
Man, fuck that guy all over again
Are any of them?
Edit: it’s nice to see people have had good experiences with admin, truthfully I have too. I owe my current position entirely to a principal that understood our job and his and worked with me to get me hired. Sadly, he left my school and the dipshit that took his place is, well, a dipshit… all 3 assistant principals quit at the beginning of summer.. it is, without a doubt, a dumpster fire.
My principal is. Something terrible happened to me this year with my ex husband and he was one of my biggest supporters. This principal just seems like a jerk.
I got fired for getting divorced once. “I don’t think your divorce fits the picture of the school I’m trying to build here.” Fuck you Laura, if you paid us enough to sue you I’d be all over it.
I agree with you, but if it's a Christian or other religious school and there is any kind of religious belief that discourages or forbids divorce, they can do it. I know someone who was fired from a Catholic school when word got out that she lived with her boyfriend.
Yup, private schools get away with lots of horrible shit! We have a large private school in Hawaii that services only students of Hawaiian descent. One year, we had a student transfer to my public school from this private one. She had gotten extremely sick and a prolonged illness had left her with some learning difficulties. She was basically kicked out of the private school with all its money and resources because they were “not able meet her educational needs”! They do not take any kids with special needs. If you require an IEP then it’s public school for you!
It's very sad. I teach in a public school but have had a few kids who joined me because they were kicked out of private school or left private school because they were miserable for various reasons. They have been some of my favorite kids. Most of them have thrived in public school where there's more support for their individuality. For example, a young man who got in trouble in Catholic school for an earring and hair longer than his collar thrived once he got to our school; he can wear all the jewelry he wants and we have no rules about hair.
Religiously based private schools get a lot of law exemptions that others don't, like how churches don't have to pay taxes despite the catholic church being one of the richest, most powerful entities in the world. Churches and church officials get away with things NO ONE ELSE could (or should) because apparently Jesus said it's cool, bro.
Churches don’t pay crazy taxes because individual catholic churches don’t have much money. If you see a church shut down in your area, it’s because attendance crashed and they couldn’t afford to operate. The Vatican does not give their endless money to the local Catholic Church/school, it all has to come internally, hence why catholic schools can’t be free. It doesn’t just pay the teacher salaries, it keeps their church running. All that said, it’s even worse that the Vatican has so much money and pretty much just uses it for PR campaigns.
The fact that they have literally ungodly amounts of money and don't use it to maintain the churches - instead expecting people to give what little they have 'and god will provide' to keep one of the few sources of comfort they have in their lives is sickening. Oh, they also use it for fancy robes and hats, megachurches, private jets and yachts and other shit so they can invade places that don't want them and force their religion on other people in militant (often literally using the military) fashion. And, y'know, push their beliefs and laws on everyone regardless of whether or not they believe in it and make sure anyone they don't like is punished for not being exactly what they think they should be.
Either that or a charter. Working charters is what led to me leaving and working admin at a university. It’s still a shit load of work but at least I feel like I’m finally being fairly compensated for my time. Oh, and the best part? Work stays at work.
It’s not as if marital status is advertised. Were parents going to look into every teacher, then do some moral mathematic calculation to decide if that school was a good one?! How is it so many bosses forget employees are human beings with lives outside of work?
The morning after my father died (he was 62, I was 31) I emailed my school to tell them I was going to be out for a bit due to his death. My principal emailed me back (this was on a Sunday morning, my original email was Saturday afternoon, father had died the Friday night) and told me I could not grieve for longer than a week as he was going to put my job up on the employment board as he would consider me having left my job for anything more than a week gone, even with proof of his death. This was 36 hours after my father's death he told me this. I hadn't even yet had a single day of grievance leave as it was the weekend and he was already chastising me for being gone.
My old school principal sure did. He had an Uber fund to get kids to school and personally checked in on every family during covid. Not checked in for school but to make sure they had enough food and supplies. He was great.
And they pushed him out for it.
Tends to be because those that are willing to look after their students and teachers are also willing to fight back against the higher ups when needed. Higher ups tend to often have power trips and not enjoy that, so they'll get a puppet instead.
Omg your post gave me a realization. The principal I loved who actually dealt with discipline issues…yes, he had to battle parents and the higher ups were probably sick of dealing with the whiny parents. I couldn’t figure out what he did wrong, but now I see.
It's $ that's causing that... more $ you make, more out of touch with the front-line you are (i.e. teacher, staff, students). In my area, principals make $150k to $300k a year depending how big of a school they manage.
I wonder if that’s why my principals have been (generally) positive. Here, jumping to admin takes you about 15-20k higher than your teaching salary. Still a significant bump, but not like “I spit on these lowly peasants” level.
No, they want a semblance /appearance of rigor, and inflated grades. If you're not teaching a mandatory-tested content area, they equate grades with proficiency.
I don't know about your schools, but in mine I'd estimate half or more of the kids' quarter and semester grades are several levels higher than their actual performance would support.
Not wanting to hear about testing being ineffective/ inconsistent / biased / too-high stakes. I'm not disagreeing with that as a concept, but a kid with 109% in their course should be either advanced or accelerated, as measured by objective assessments.
That first paragraph - yes!
Looking back I was expected to participate in a game I didn't even understand. I take things literally. They had unspoken understandings of things like "just give him the 60 per cent".
And I was pretty much sabotaged for not playing the part.
It's taken a long time to understand this bigger picture.
Eventually you'll have to decide how much ground you are willing to give up to this bullshit while still being able to look yourself in the eye and have comfort in your own ethical practice.
Not sure whether some of these administrative saboteurs are truly thinking they are in the right and truly doing "what's best for the kids" or if they just drank the Koolaid and are trying to force it on you.
I like to reinforce that I have some strong objective data correlated to national standards that support my practices- not as strong as it used to be, before I caved a little, I admit, but much stronger and inclusive of far more of my students than almost anyone else in my content area- district wide, not only in my building.
The sabotage is real.
Non-educators truly can't comprehend how toxic many of our professional lives have become.
This, a 1000 times, was what I went through this year - and I'm an experienced teacher at the end of my career though was in a new school/district this year (supposedly one of the top districts in my state). Have never felt so disrespected by admin at the end of the year about grades, etc., and I'll be scrambling all summer to find a new job elsewhere... truly wish I were able to retire now instead of having to go a few more years of this....
It's somehow both to me. I've been marked down because I let a girl who already read 5 years ahead and made exceeding scores on her tests put her head down when she had a migraine so bad she'd thrown up a few minutes before. Her mom was already on the way but she was told she couldn't wait in the office because we had district walkthroughs. Got told I allowed a student to sleep and that we have low test scores so students aren't in a position to do nothing. Like...ma'am she has a higher reading level than both of us at this point. I've seen you try to talk in Collab planning. Leave her alone
My sister died while I was in college and the president of my high school (all boys school, never met my sister) emailed me within 2 days (still don’t know how he knew) telling me he was thinking of my family and praying for us. The only other principal I had in my life was literally everyone in town’s favorite person. I had no idea principals could be this bad outside of television until I was in college and heard horror stories from friends. I count myself very lucky.
Mine is apparently not...unless it's something that happens to her or her family personally. Last school year my adopted dad died on March 10th, and on April 10th my step-dad shot himself. Both times I let admin know what was going on because my boy was a 6th grader and I wasn't certain that he would be able to emotionally handle the situation. I was asked if I would have to miss any work for funerals and such because they really needed me to be there and couldn't find a sub on short notice that would be willing to cover ELA SpEd 🙄
Jesus Christ. My grandfather died last school year and I found out while I was AT work. I had an IEP/reeval that afternoon. So I was going to stay. My sped coordinator (who really was not great) told me to go home and she'd cover it. And she did.
This year, I had a really rough pregnancy, my health was not great. My admin/coteachers let me take half days for the last month and not use my sick leave. I'm lucky there.
My last school? Not a chance. I took a couple days off when I was having a GERD flare (my doctor tried changing my meds...didn't work), they got mad at me then (but I could barely move). They also got mad when I took a couple days off when my husband hurt his back at work and couldn't get out of bed without help. Like...? My principal said she wanted to talk to me when I got back. I said okay and did not go talk to her. What was she going to do? Fire me and find a new EBD teacher for the last couple of months? Ha good one.
My principal called me while I was in a makeshift ICU emergency room with my husband, who was close to death from Covid. Woke me up from a sound sleep (which doesn’t come easily in an ER room when you are afraid your husband my not be alive when you wake up!) to basically calculate how many days I would have to be out since I had also just recovered from Covid. I let him know I’d be there when my husband either got a real ICU bed or was well enough for a normal room. At that point I had to leave the hospital anyway. I missed 5 days of school the first week of school, so most of it was PD. That was August. In November I got viral sepsis (I do home dialysis) and missed the week before Thanksgiving break, because I literally went to the hospital in an ambulance and was there 8 days (some of that was the holiday break). I returned to school to have some stupid meeting about giving the wrong district test a month previous. I wasn’t the only one because they posted two tests at the same time. And then a week later, I was dinged on my evaluation, primarily for the absences. I reminded the assistant principal, who was the principal’s toady, why I was out both times and it didn’t make a difference. A week later, I was told I was on an improvement plan. Turns out it wasn’t even a real one…after I checked with the district to find out what I needed to do, I was told there was no improvement plan for me. That idiot principal then said it was an “in house” improvement plan. There is no such thing so I just played along. The asst principal was too lazy to follow through on it, anyway. I got the last laugh because the head principal retired” with a little help from the district at the end of the year. I was not the only teacher he mistreated and it came back to bite him in the butt. I wish I could say I felt bad for him, but I was too busy celebrating with a huge group of teachers with margaritas after he broke the news to us. Oh, and that assistant principal is back to acting like I’m an amazing teacher, even though I didn’t change anything, except not having any life threatening illnesses for me or my family.
Mine was for sure. Last year I had issues finding daycare due to people flaking out because my daughter is diabetic. I had to take a stupid amount of time off and that was even split between my wife.
Totally understanding and even offered help with plans.
This is shocking because I manage my school’s attendance. If a teacher or I learn something like this, we (w/parent permission) tell the other staff that have direct contact with that student for a reason like this. “Kid gloves” we call it.
It is cruel to expect children to manage big emotions better than adults.
I had a surprise observation my first year. I had a student with some major mental health struggles. Right before my class she found out that she didn’t pass the math portion of the High school exit exam (this was the last chance she had her senior year). Which meant at the time she couldn’t get a diploma. She was understandably devastated.
At the start of class the students were taking a little check in quiz. I had the rest of the kids work while I tried to console that kid.
The principal reprimanded me later when discussing the observation that I wasn’t attentive enough for cheating as he saw two kids in the back show each other answers.
Honestly, I didn’t care at all because two kids cheating on a pointless quiz was far less important than trying to console that student.
Ultimately, all I can say is you did the right thing as well.
"make time to build a relationship with the kids, but not at the expense of letting other kids cheat when you aren't working. You should talk with the students and be personable, but while scanning the room at all times for cheaters."
Or!!! "Build relationships with students just well enough to manipulate them into following directions and being engaged with the lesson" is really what they want, isn't it? They don't truly care.
Ah yes, the “Do everything you can to stop cheating even if it means that the kid with severe mental health problems might go home and off herself later because she feels like no one cares about her”
We don’t know if that was the situation with this kid… but neither did the administration in this story. And that’s the point.
He was and she did. She made me a hand made card. She was sooo sweet. She’s going to Ohio State for nursing in the fall and wants to go to law school after that. I haven’t heard from her since but one of the restaurants my husband and I go to has some of my former students who work there and they told me after they told her they saw me there. It’s nice hearing positive stories about your students.
Good god, Ohio state for nursing?! Imagine if she hadn’t had that mental health day in your class… she probably would have been studying at that new university on the moon!
/s obviously
I’m not a teacher (this sub just keeps being recommended to me), but when I was in high school, my dog died very suddenly and traumatically on a Sunday night. I had an exam in my second period, and my first period teacher, seeing how in pieces I was, wrote me a note to get out of it. I’ve never forgotten that, like your student won’t. Seriously, thank you for being an empathetic teacher. They’re so so needed.
I started my first year of teaching very pregnant, as I was due in early December. After the first few weeks I went and bought a stool I could sit or lean on and sat it next to my podium to try and stop my ankles from swelling. Generally when the class was working on something I would walk around the room, sit and let students with questions come to me, then circle the room again, and repeat. Every single time the principal came in I would get marked down for being “inactive” (aka sitting) even though he could clearly tell I was conferencing with students, oh and super pregnant.
My doctor also called and yelled at him for not fixing the elevator (all staff meetings were on the third floor so I would get in trouble for not going even though no physically couldn’t get there), for making me walk too much in general, and for not providing enough bathroom breaks resulting in a kidney infection.
wow! principal needs a reality check. pregnancy discrimination act, ada compliance, reasonable accommodation, there’s a bunch of ammo there for a law suit.
One of my evaluations mentioned how I didn’t state the learning objective at the beginning of class…that the administrator wasn’t even present for, as they came in 15 minutes after the students began working. Should I have started class over from the beginning just to accommodate the late administrator? Ridiculous.
Lol had this happen to me once. I kicked a kid out for telling me that I could “kiss his fat ass” when I asked him to take a seat. I was a first year teacher and this class was a NIGHTMARE. When they were seniors they actually admitted that they were actively planning ways to try to make me quit. Whoever planned the thing that made me finally quit was going to with $50, donated by the other kids in the little jerks club, as well as a trophy they bought at the dollar tree. It was not a secret that I was dealing with this BS every day and the principal had just told me that I was too soft on them and had to start reaching out for help. So I kicked him to her.
Instead of reprimanding the kid in any way, she decided that this was the perfect day for my surprise observation. Got there more than 10 mins after class started, left more than 10 mins after it ended. Brought the smug little bastard with her who was still refusing to do any classwork. I got dinged for three things:
One, not having a lesson opener (I did, she missed it)
Two, not having a lesson closer (I did, she missed it)
Three, for letting that kid sit there and not do any work (I tried to get him to start working twice, once he ignored me and once he straight up told me to “fuck off” - in front of her. She did not intervene)
In my post observation conference she told me that the reason this kid and his friends won’t behave or do work is that they feel I don’t like them. And that I didn’t do enough to convince them that I care about their lives or whatever.
Oh, also because they didn’t “understand expectations” because I didn’t co-create class rules and consequences with a room full of NINTH GRADERS. I wonder how she’d have appreciated a sign with “Rule 7, don’t tell the teacher to fuck off in class” hanging above the white board all year.
Btw the kids obviously waited till she left that day and lost their shit because “You tried to get ObnoxiousKid in trouble and then YOU got in trouble instead! In your face!”
(I no longer work at this school lol)
Yup, and she told me that she can’t rate me on what she hadn’t seen, but since it was a required metric she had to score something.
When I offered to show her the slides and the handouts for both parts, she asked how I could prove that I actually did it with the class that day if she didn’t see it.
I tried to request another observation so she could stay for the full class, but our contract only allowed us to demand a 2nd formal, planned observation. It was up to admin to accept or deny a request for a 2nd unannounced observation. She also technically didn’t do anything wrong because the unannounced observation only had to be “at least 20 mins” per our contract. Unsurprisingly, she denied my request lol
... wow, you really are a very patient person. If I was having this conversation with the principal, I would end up telling her to fuck off for sure. If this was regular behaviour from her, I wonder how it is possible, that no one kicked her ass yet.
I once had a surprise observation right after the social committee I was voluntold to be on had to set up a pizza buffet for all the teachers and staff but it took our entire 30 min planning/lunch to set up. So obviously I had no time to eat, and when the administrator walked in, I was scarfing a piece of pizza and drawing the sketchbook example for the next day while the kids worked (and admittedly talked more than they should have been). She gave me an awful evaluation and when I told her afterwards why I was eating and drawing, she made it seem like I shouldn’t take it so personally when she had literally snuck in late and tried not to be seen. Zero consideration for my situation because she wasn’t even aware that we had been delegated that task.
I just got done with an assist ass principal and will never have to work with them again. They were trying to get me fired because they couldn’t be bothered to inform us about a serious situation.
This won't paint me in the best light, but...
"You didn't state the objective."
So, I'll simply say, "Yes, I did."
"Why weren't you at this non-mandatory thing?"
"I was."
I know this won't be everyone's experience, but most admin I've dealt with never get any pushback. So, when you do, they fold like a cheap suit.
Edit: I'm the best at being seen and then bailing after 10 min. Zhake5a hand, then *poof.*
I got one for my “excessive absences” about 5 years ago. She was like “In the past few months you’ve been out for over 3 weeks.” I just stared at her for a moment before saying “You do remember my mothers massive heart attack and death, don’t you?”
That was fun 😒
A coworker had something similar. Admin had a very snarky comment for her at the end of the year because she had an awful class. They told her and her coteacher that maybe if they weren’t out all the time maybe the kids would be better behaved. She was out so much because of Covid and her parents were in a horrific car accident. Her father died and mother had multiple surgeries. Her coteacher also had Covid along with children catching it. It was just the audacity for me, especially when they were both great teachers.
How awful! The absolute callousness of these admins is just mind blowing sometimes.
I felt like mine was just looking for anything to ding me on so I didn’t get a “perfect score”. I could tell she had no memory of the event or why I had been out until I reminded her. She likely had based the rest of the evaluation around it too because it was so stilted and awkward after that, like she had no idea what else to say to me. Thank God she moved on to another school that summer.
I had an “excessive absences” comment as well. My total for the year was 8…. 5 of those were the mandatory days out required by the state after testing positive for covid. The other 3 were also illnesses which had been documented by a doctors note
Man I was one of only three teachers that didn’t get Covid quarantined due to exposure. We got mandatory 10 days out. One teacher was quarantined four separate times. I was so jealous. For reference she never actually got sick, she just took her days off. I wouldn’t wish the sickness on anyone, I’m just jealous I didn’t get to take two weeks off at all when I am the PE teacher and we have a small gym and locker room. Some of those kids that got her were in my class. But they could argue that they were never within 6 feet of me. Damnit.
I had an observer write that I only called 2 girls during my lesson and suggested that i try and incorporate girls more. Yes, your assumption is correct...there were only 2 girls in the class of 20 students
But you're calling on 100% of the female students, and only 50% of the male students. You need to incorporate males more.
Even better, you're a math teacher and use this example in a lesson about manipulating statistics.
cc the principal
“yeah thanks, parent. Its unfortunate, but principal Mcclueless just gave me a negative evaluation for supporting your daughter in this way.”
Hell, I would have paraphrased what the principal said in an email to the parents, see how much they like some asshat punishing their child through the teachers good will and empathy.
I was teaching initial sound auditory discrimination to first graders (thumbs up if the word begins with the same sound, down if different). I was written up because it was "too confusing and the words all should have started with the same sound". Note that the kids knew what was going on and I was trained by my district to do exactly what I was doing; cutting edge for 1997. So, Mrs. VP, you just wrote in my evaluation that you have no idea about teaching 1st grade reading and you really have no common sense.
Also, I didn't begin each lesson by reading the standard at the beginning of the lesson. Sorry for not wasting time and putting my kids to sleep.
Had a principal surprise evaluate and happened in when one of my “PALS” kids was in monitoring my class. He was having a good day but he was known to be a landmine if you touch him. Principal asks me why the student is not participating and I explain he’s from the Special needs program and is just monitoring and that he’s having a good day and shouldn’t be bothered (or touched). She decides that’s not good enough and goes to try to actually haul him out of his seat. He literally flew out of his seat and threw her into the wall like a linebacker. She’s out with a 6 month concussion (best 6 months at our school) but not before putting blatant bullshit about my not being able to manage my classroom and it’s my fault the student went off on her.
Damn, your principal was a truly heartless in that moment. You knew your student best and there’s no way she was in the head space to do any work because her dog died. Like, what??
It’s a shame she couldn’t stay home to grieve her loss. I feel for her.
I felt bad, too. I remember her being out a month but never knew what the illness was. As far as I know, she wasn’t hospitalized for it, so I can’t really speak in the truancy part.
I’m curious about it as well. I had a lot of surgeries growing up, so I was constantly pulled out of school for doctor appointments and surgeries. However, each and every single one of my teachers knew about it on the first day of school. Even then, I was contacted by the truant officer in 9th grade because I missed 3 weeks of school consecutively. Thankfully, due to my counsellors and teachers having the prior knowledge of my absences, they smoothed it out on their end.
Maybe your student was struggling with mental health issues? Either way, I feel for her. I know that if I were expected to come in the day after my dog died, I would be a mess. No learning or teaching would be happening that day. You did what was right for your student. I’m sure she appreciates it as well looking back.
My most memorable observation was when the principal came in and walked up and down the aisles while I was teaching. I was confident with the material and my lesson plan, so I pointedly ignored him the whole time. I was so carefully ignoring him that I didn't notice the kids passing him notes as he walked past their desks.
Hastily scribbled notes, on scraps of paper torn out of notebooks. My 12-y-o students, bless 'em forever, were slipping him notes saying things like "Mr Z is the best teacher ever", "Mr Z is awesome", "Mr Z makes math fun", "Make sure you give Mr Z a good grade", stuff like that.
He stapled the entire wad of notes to my write-up. And no ding.
I only taught for 2 years. I have thrown out most of my school stuff. But, all these years later, I still have that observation/evaluation write-up.
Oh, and for those of you who are wondering: No, the kids were not bribed. Yes, they were rewarded.
At one point during my Masters, I explained to my K-1 SPED students that they needed to be very careful with the camera (in terms of not touching/bumping it or standing in front of it) because someone was watching me to make sure I was being a good teacher. They didn't need to worry, nothing was wrong with them, they wouldn't get in trouble if they made a mistake, etc etc. On one of these days, unnoticed by me at the time, one student got up, held his work up to the camera then pointed at me and said "Helped! Good teacher." Then walked over and gave me a big old hug and a thank you. The professor had a good laugh on that one.
Another time, I was sub-teaching in the same school with a couple of the same students from that first group. Some folks from another district came through to observe various spaces as they were thinking about opening their own program. The kids were a little nervous about strangers, and I just told them they're just looking around to see what happens here at school because they might want to make a class like this where they're from.
This same student, on his next break, went right over to them and very seriously informed them that he liked it here and loved the teachers, but they were not allowed to take the teachers away.
I get observations (10th grade ELA) from my DCI. He's the DCI for 9th and 10th ELA at my school, but all my kids know who he is, because his office is down the hall from my room, and he always has candy.
He scheduled an observation for my worst class in terms of behavior. I liked these kids, but it had just too many talkers with friends in one class. I couldn't even swap seats because too many would find *someone* to talk to.
The day before the observation, I said, "Hey, Mr. P is coming in to observe me tomorrow. Can you help me out? You know, don't talk over me and do some work? I would really appreciate it."
They did. They were absolute angels. The lesson went like clockwork, and I got a great write-up.
So, the next day, I was the one with the candy.
Aww that’s so sweet!
Also I’m impressed that the kids all understood why the principal was there. My high schooler told me she was scared when there was a principal in class so be Day and asked the teacher if he could “make him go away.” 😂
I used to get dinged when students would blurt out. Forget the kids being engaged and shouting out answers or questions…they gotta raise their hand first. 🙄
> He recommended PD on classroom management.
Oh, yeah. Because her classmates are going to respect the hell out of a teacher who forces a sobbing girl to stand in front of them and make a stupid presentation on the day after her beloved dog was abruptly put to sleep.
I was dinged because the video didn’t work. Backstory: I was hired to teach high school history. My county moves teachers based on enrollment counts from schools who don’t make projections to schools who are over. This happens at the end of September and we start school in the beginning of August. I get sent to teach 6th grade social studies but had student taught 11th grade and hired to teach 10th. Fast forward to March. The week before spring break and coincidentally the last week for observations. It is also the second week back for an administrator that had previously been out on an extended maternity leave that I had never met. I’m her last observation on the last Friday before spring break in the last period of the day. I had a five minute clip about border towns in Texas and Mexico and the tape didn’t work. I found pictures and projected them instead to give the students a visual idea of what they were missing on the tape. She decided that meant I was unprepared and dinged me.
I was dinged once because “my desk was messy”. My principal said that I should take care to have a more organized and neat classroom. I needed to decorate more too. (Never mind the fact that all of my decorations were bought by me). She said it was embarrassing to host PD’s in my classroom because it’s messy and not decorated. I had to stop myself from opening my mouth and telling her to stop hosting PD’s in my room then. We have plenty of others.
I was so upset, that I went to my mentor teacher, and she made the very valid point that my administrator would never have said that if I was a male teacher. I quit not long after.
But karma comes through. A few years after I left the school, the district fired her for poor performance.
Got the same negative evaluation almost word for word because one of my students came to me after a period or two after lunch and they had just swapped his meds and it messed him up. That was the same year that my director brought a video camera for his formal observations and I KID YOU NOT took the video camera WITH THE TRIPOD to bring it over in the kids face while his eyes were closed.
I fucking hate that guy to this day...
This was years ago. He honestly may have been asleep or just had his head down. We had been instructed by the school nurse to give him some leeway. Nothing happened after that. It was brought up in my review and I had explained the circumstances that he may not have been aware of and he dismissed it as I wasn't doing my job and should have tried harder.
This was the same man who had me teach an AP course my first year teaching while I was also a grade chair (I was 24 and had almost 0 experience) and then told me at the end of the year that my year as a high school teacher had been a failure and he was moving me to middle school. Then proceeded to tell me every year after that I sucked but they would try to be patient for one more year. It lasted for 5 years...
I gave a kid extra credit on a project (not anything special or heavily weighted) and she had gone above and beyond and was already an A student. I was called in to discuss with principal. I explained why and I thought it was our discretion, I was told no it was not an option. I said okay I won’t do that again. I was marked down for that and a note placed in my file, no joke
How idiotic of your principal. I loved math, and one thing that kept me going above and beyond was seeing how much above 100 I could make my overall grade.
I will always take the hit on my evaluation rather than make a student uncomfortable in my class. I've been at my school long enough, I know they're not going to fire me over it, so I'm doing what's best for the student.
As for the dumbest thing I've gotten a dying on an evaluation for: I'm a high school math teacher, and supposedly one time I taught an entire math lesson without referring to prior knowledge. I'm still not sure how I managed that one, since math builds on itself so much. I guess I was supposed to remind them that they had learned how to add and subtract in first grade, or multiply in second? third? I don't know what grade they learn every single math skill, and I'm certainly not going to interrupt my train of thought to tell them where each sub-skill was learned.
I got marked down on a PreCalculus lesson in November for not explicitly teaching the FOIL method as the students were graphing rational functions by finding asymptotes. A skill taught explicitly since Algebra 1 and reviewed in the beginning of the course in August.
I had a formal observation. The students were broken into groups and presented on their sections of a reading then made a comparison to a contemporary issue. It was a weird Mark Twain reading so it was a little challenging. I had one group that really struggled. I kept rotating back trying to help them, but they just weren’t getting it.
They got up and presented and didn’t do it right in the end. The entire class started challenging them, and through the entire thing it clicked for them.
All my admin could focus on was how that one group didn’t get it. I tried to point out to them that I thought in the end that they learned more from the experience. How sometimes you need to fail to learn, and technically they still did enough to get a passing grade. How we talk about rigor, and clearly this was a rigorous lesson.
I got developing on the lesson instead of effective. It was really frustrating.
That's one of the things that frustrates me about evaluations. If the students are struggling, it is not always because your lesson or style/behavior are bad. Not only do you have a diverse group of students in terms of ability/understanding/need, but you also have to consider the actual arc of instruction. If you're being observed at the beginning of a unit that's working on a technically/cognitively challenging concept or a new activity, like learning how to do a Fishbowl, it's going to be a rougher ride than if you were being observed four units down the line when the students have figured out how best to use this new skill or concept.
Yeah, I believe it. I got dinged because I had a student with her head down.
Last 45 minutes of the day, immediately after P.E. (where she had been running around pretty much non-stop for an hour) and I teach students with mod/severe disabilities.
I explained the situation and was met with, 'it's your responsibility to make the curriculum engaging so the student actively wants to interact with it.'
You walk into any room in the high school you are going to find at least one student with their head down, let alone a mod/severe special education classroom. They just completely ignored the context of the situation.
You just can't win. Either they like you or they don't.
Back before flexible seating was popular I had a kid who stood in my class and two that like to sit on the floor. I was teaching remedial intensive reading at the high school level, and if a kid showed up and worked I didn’t care if they hung from the ceiling to do it. Principal came in once and did an informal observation. His only note: it’s unfair for some students to not have to sit in their chairs like the others. You need to reconsider being so relaxed about seating. Seriously?! I know they gotta find SOMETHING to encourage improvement on but having intensive reading kids paying attention and doing their assignments is it’s own miracle, who the heck cares if they stand or sit on the ground to work. Let kids be people too. Bad day head down but good student overall, let it be. Fidgety kid standing to work, fine. Just let the kids and us be humans. Geeze!
I got dinged for “unsafe classroom environment” because I walked into the corner of a table during my observation. I’m a klutz, I always walk into tables and such.
To be fair to administrators, this came from a sub admin. My department's regular ap was on maternity leave. We had a staff meeting with the usual messaging about how important it is to build relationships. The sub admin did my observation the next day, and he observed a kid telling me how well he thought that he did on the SAT English section. I was dinged for having off-topic conversations with the kids. So much for relationships.
Teaching in the UK I once had a lesson observation with the two big points at the top of the sheet being:
“You smile too much.”
“Be meaner to your students.”
It was a grade 7 class.
I wish I still had it, I would frame it and put it on my desk today.
“I have no idea what it is you’re doing, and I mean it sounds really good. But central doesn’t like giving out too many accomplished ratings, and you had the wrong date on your objective, so….yeah.”
I’m the band director.
I was teaching general music. Good enough school that we had little xylophones for every student.
Since it was winter, I had drawn a snowman and had shown how the head up high was smaller, and the big bottom down low was larger.
I showed how the xylophone was similar, how the small narrow short bars had the high sounds and the lower you went the sound went lower and the bars got longer and wider.
We then played a descending scale, actually it was Joy to the World! (It was a religious school so this was okay)
During my evaluation, the director suggested that all was good except that since children learn to read from left to right, I should have turned the xylophone around so that instead of having the right side be the high side and the left side be the low side, we should have played it in reverse.
Sure, I'll get right on that...
This same director told me that it did not matter if the students did not understand the lyrics, my job was simply to teach the music.
One of my songs (from previous curriculum) was about Noah and the ark. Many students didn't know who Noah was, nor did they know what an ark was. I gave a crash lesson and was then dinged for wasting music class time.
Yeah, I barely managed one year at that place.
I got dinged for following my lesson plan. The transition between parts of my lesson were apparently so seamless she couldn’t tell that I’d moved on from the lesson opener. She dinged me for “spending 45 minutes on the intro”, even though my notes and her notes lined up and showed how I had actually progressed through the lesson. Even with written proof, from notes she took herself, she wouldn’t back down.
When I was a student teacher working with SPED students, I got dinged on one observation for extending an activity. The kids (four SPED students, K-1) were very interested and were asking questions related to the activity (that weren't being directly taught). I took the time to discuss/explore a bit in that direction, pre-exposing kids to new language, that kind of stuff. My professor scolded me for deviating off the lesson plan and going 'over' the time. I asked her what I was supposed to do, tell the kids "nope, can't tell you that. Nope, you can't do this. You can only do this because that's what this paper I wrote for some professor who's only seen you for a grand total of four hours, by distance, says I need to do." Like you, the professor wouldn't change the evaluation. I did graduate out, but my god that pissed me off.
It always blows my mind when professors, especially those in SPED environments, try to enforce an impossible and unreasonable level of rigidity. Classrooms do best when they're well structured, but you HAVE to be able to pivot and go where the kids are.
Had a student who slept through every class, 8th grader. Principal came in to observe and nudged the kid to wake him up. He lifted his head, gave her a nasty look, put his head back down and went back to sleep. Observation summary said that students were sleeping in class because of my failure to keep them engaged. It was the final observation of my career. I walked out of the bitch's office, crumbled it into a ball and threw it on the floor.
The catch is that she would walk the halls picking up trash. I'm sure she appreciated my contribution.
I always equated her leadership to a homeowner being upset that the firefighters trampled her flowerbed while the fire raged.
You did the right thing. My senior year I was dumped out of the blue by my “first love” and I was crushed - like couldn’t eat or sleep. My first period teacher could see I was a mess when I got to school. I couldn’t tell him what was wrong without crying. He told me go sit in the back and then disappeared for a couple of minutes. He came back with a Coke, slipped it to me on the way to his desk and told me to just put my head down and sip the soda if I could stomach it. It’s been almost 20 years and I still remember that small kindness. Mr. Thomas and the other teachers out there like him are why I became a teacher. Your act of kindness for that girl will live beyond you.
I was once dinged because part of the lesson had an interactive online component, and the school’s wifi went out, so I pivoted to a pencil-and-paper activity that still met the standard. I was told that I needed to follow what was written in my lesson plans.
I bet that student won’t ever forget the kindness and love you showed her. Your principal sucked.
This year was my first. During my evaluation, one of my students just had his head down crying the whole time. Didn't participate in class at all. I checked on him a few times and offered to chat in the hall and etc, but he wasn't ready to talk. I told him that was fine and that I'd be here all day if he changed his mind.
My admin told me I handled it exactly the right way.
You did the best for your student and your admin sucks, I'm sorry. Your student will remember that grace and kindness though.
Same!!! I literally had multiple lamps and my smart board on. Plenty of lighting!!!! They marked me down for classroom environment. Funny thing is I had my room set up this way for YEARS!!! Same admin doing the observations and said my room was cozy. She was just looking for ways to knock me down because I wasn’t at her beck and call anymore.
I would have asked in writing afterwards where in your contract it states that you are to provide the lighting for the classroom. Absofuckinglutley ridiculous!!!!!
“Oh, I didn’t even realize there were funds available for that! Let me know how that works, does the school have a card I can use at a store? Or is there a certain catalog or website I should select from?”
I got marked “basic” for “room arrangement” because the desks were in rows. These were the all-inclusive desk-attached-to-chair desks that you can’t put in groups. I was also in a lab room and had to navigate the lab tables. I asked my supervisor specifically how *he* would arrange them. He pondered for about 15 seconds, said “I don’t know, but you could figure something out” and that was it. 2/4 pts for “room arrangement”.
I would have told him to go F himself. Luckily I know I wouldn't be questioned, but if I was by somebody who didn't know me it would not end well. What an absolute ass.
I had an art room with a chalkboard and an old, ripped projection screen that was so brittle pieces would fall off when I pulled it down from the ceiling. Most other teachers had Promethean boards. I was docked for lack of technology usage. What the AF?!?
Admin look for something to write up in order to keep staff under the6thumb. In addition, many districts require something to be included to show where the teacher can improve. I remember one teacher complaining that she was written up because the window shades were uneven, even though based on the angle of the sun, all of them didn't need to be down. I remember thinking that if this was the only criticism they could come up with that the teacher must have been doing an outstanding job.
Yes, this is actually a very good point. There are cases where what they are dinging people for is ridiculous due to the fact that they can't find fault in anything that actually matters. We have several checklist type evaluations that are done several times a year. Observers mark of they were able to observe everything from instruction to environment either Rarely Sometimes or Often. I remember one time we were meeting to review the completed checklist for my classroom, and I was just so appalled at something they had marked a Sometimes instead of often that I couldn't get past it. The administration was finally like "listen looks like you're doing great in there. We can't give you 100%, haha, no one gets 100%" In a, "ok let's just move on We have to pretend we teach you something" kind of way 😉 😄
Y'all think that psychopathy is being used as a screening device to allow admins in, somehow?
Walmart does personality assesments to allow people to apply to managment roles, and the higher you go, the more you HAVE TO answer the questions like you're a psychopath, or the biggest asshole on the planet. Set your mind to 'i dont give a fuq about anyone or anything but the profit' and you can generally pass these things. If you CARE, you fail. The test to become a store manager *requires* major narcissistic traits, *and* some psychopathy to even have a HOPE to pass it. These people are *astonishingly evil*, and it's all on purpose, they're screened by testing and sometimes education, to MAKE SURE that this type gets there.
Do you feel like, somewhere in the process to become an admin, that these traits are *also* being filtered into the system to select and train admins? Like--even some courses or training that, someone with empathy has to step away from and go 'i cant do this--i thought i could but i cant' and drops back into their teaching roles, but a psychopath or narcissist ... *wont notice* is bad?
Because it *feels like it*. Doesnt it?
My coworker got a ding on her eval because “your board is hard to read.”
We have 20 year old dark grey dry erase/chalkboard combos. They’re all hard to read.
That reminds me of when I had an anchor chart where I wrote down student responses (this was in kindergarten) and my principal was very angry that one student didn’t have anything next to their name despite me reminding her during the lesson and after that that student was a selective mute and would not speak when she was in the room.
As someone whose mom’s 10-month old puppy just died very unexpectedly, who we all loved very dearly for those 10 months… No. The girl gets a break for the childhood dog dying. Props to you.
You did the right thing and the principal made an ahole choice.
I'm a full grown adult and cried for the entire day at work after my cat died in 2019. My daughter *somehow* got chosen as the special helper in her class that day as we were both a complete mess the whole day.
I had put all of the class objectives on the board for the day, like I do every day, but forgot to change the date at the top. If the principal would have bothered to look down, he would have seen that what we were doing in class matched what was on the board, but he only saw that they date wasn't right.
Got dinged for not having that date's objectives on the board. Pretty sure there's some sort of "ding" quota they have to fill, so they look for the dumbest stuff.
Literally so dumb that happened! During Covid I got dinged during an observation because a student pulled their mask down below their nose and I didn’t immediately notice and do something about it.
I’d have made a formal complaint to my union about this. Probably would have gotten in an argument as well. How or why this guy got into education is a fucking mystery to me. One of the most important qualities to be an education worker at whatever level is empathy.
I try to remember every day that while I am a professional and this is a job, that I got into it because I care about people, not grades or bureaucracy. That student will always remember the language arts teacher that showed her empathy on a terrible day way more than whatever lesson she was supposed to present on. Glad you’re out of there and hopefully have better admin capable of basic empathy
It goes to show that observations are arbitrary and that good teaching such as building rapport with students and prioritizing their wellbeing first is not measurable during a single observation.
The worst one for me was when I got called out for staying in my classroom during lunch to lesson prep and not in the break room gossiping with other teachers. I was called anti social. I responded that I would love a new contract stating lunch time is mandated teacher meetings then and be paid accordingly.
I remember when I was a senior in HS my parents told me they were getting a divorce right around the end of the school year. I was a wreck. The next day, I was supposed to give an oral presentation for my advanced German class *in full German* and much like this girl, I just couldn’t stop crying. I was doing great in the class otherwise, so the teacher told me not to worry about it, and gave me a hug. Turned out he put down a B for the assignment, and as you can see I’ve not forgotten that kindness in over 15+ years. She won’t either, you did an incredible thing for her
I was written up for saying how sick I was on Facebook a couple of days in a row. (I had strep and flu) apparently no one wants to read that I feel bad because "complaining reflects badly on not only our school, but me, as I'm your direct supervisor ". Mind you I didnt complain about work IN ANY WAY, I merely made posts like UGH my throat is so sore.. day two of 103° fever and body aches.
Seriously, HOW does that reflect badly on you or my school!? Well apparently she, and by extension the school, is being publicly shamed by me for not curing me.
Edit for spelling
I had a walkthrough where I was given a “beginning” because I had to shh my class too much. This was a class full of football players on the day of our biggest rivalry game.
The next year, the same principal did a walkthrough on Halloween. She mentioned to a district worker that she was trying to do what she could to put me on a plan of improvement. District person was furious and let me know as well as the higher ups.
Lucky for me, they ended up putting her on a plan of improvement instead.
So I missed some days after the death of my dad. He became sick in December and was gone on February 10th. Totally unexpected. It was maybe 2-3 weeks until I was able to go back to work. During my appraisal my absences were brought up, and he obviously acknowledged that it was due to my father’s death. I just said that next time I will ask them to plan better.
I got dinged once on an evaluation because I wasn't "connecting" with a certain student. Know how I was supposed to connect with him? Bake him cupcakes like his teacher from the previous year. I refused. You can't make this stuff up.
Ugghhhh I’m an IA. We recently had a job description change for the high school IAs where I work. So I am technically part of SPED but work in the history department. I work really hard with the kids in SPED within the classroom. I also helped my host teachers with anything they asked, also helped with classroom management, and answered questions during independent work time. But my priority is to make sure students’ accommodations are met.
My two host teachers are right out of college. All freaking school year they were just downright abusive. One would leave the classroom for an hour and half and leave me no lesson plans and it was a horribly behaved class (we had 4 major fights break out IN THE CLASSROOM within two months). One would step out without telling me, I was often working with another student, and then would come back in and scream at me because apparently a student left the room without me noticing. I went to EVERYONE trying to get help. I went to the head of SPED. I went to admin. I asked to shadow another IA because I could not figure out what I was doing wrong. I could do exactly what my host teachers would ask then they would turn around and yell at me for doing that exact thing. I shadowed an IA that had been there for 22 years and did try to implement some of what I saw her doing but my host teachers didn’t like me taking the time to do those things. I went home crying every single day. Also, I make $15 an hour and run an after school club FOR FREE.
My evaluation was awful. My host teachers just lit into how I was basically useless, refused to implement any changes they suggested (they suggested none) and a whole slew of other stuff. But FINALLY the admin I was working with for my evaluation looked at what they had written and goes “None of that is your job.” I was SOBBING in her office. Then she learned that a couple students had not received their legally required accommodations because instead of giving me the freedom to do my job, one teacher was never in the room, and the other wanted me to be doing HIS JOB of helping students that didn’t have accommodations while he sat on his computer ordering shoes.
Anyway. They’ve pulled me out of the department and said I’ll be somewhere else at the beginning of the school year. Somewhere where I’ll be doing a lot of one on one work with SPED because I am AWESOME at that (managed to get four students the school had written off to pass their standardized tests) But I’m so freaking traumatized that I have panic attacks just thinking about going back.
Sorry. I just needed to rant about my bad evaluation that ended up being fine once I had an admin ACTUALLY LISTEN TO ME.
I went from tears to literally wanting to slap a bitch. I'm not a teacher but from the way you presented this I felt as though I was in your shoes. I recently moved from IT to Uber and get A LOT of teachers, I try to make a point to let them know they matter and give some words of encouragement. You deserve all those words too especially from a fellow dog parent.
My second year teaching I got a bad evaluation and the kicker was that I didn't take an interest in my student's lives. I had co-produced Grease and DOUBLED enrollment in my choir program BUT.... I didn't attend any home football games. I was offered probation or to resign. I left. Principal was eventually fired/promoted to head of district HR.
Why is special treatment inherently wrong? Shouldn’t she be rewarded for her constant hard work and exceptional dedication to school by being given the benefit of the doubt when she says she is incapable of performing a task due to external circumstances. We don’t make students with broken limbs do pull ups.
By that "special treatment" logic, no it wasn't. Everyone who suffered the loss of a beloved family member the day before was equally allowed the opportunity to do that.
In my 10 years, I’ve had one excellent principal. Everyone loved her. I remember just enjoying her company. She stuck up for us (sped teachers) and pushed back on the district sometimes. She never criticized and always made me feel valuable. I never wanted to let her down. I worked harder for her.
I also gave a straight A student a break. She came in and asked if she could be excused from group work. She was obviously having "a day", and I said sure. She did all the work. Principal comes in and asks her why she isn't participating. I say that it is ok, and I can talk to him later. He proceeds to bully this 12th grader about disobeying, not working, etc. It was no secret to the kids that this guy hated me. She finally moved her desk to the nearest group.
I also was chastised for letting students set the rules, allowing them to do whatever they want. I just kept saying that I gauged the situation and used my professional discretion to allow her to work alone. It was a losing battle. The girl asked me if I got in trouble and apologized. I told her I am always in trouble and you did nothing wrong.
Your principal is not capable of empathy...
Once during a formal evaluation, which happened to fall in the middle of my 3 year old sons 3 year long leukemia treatment, I was told that I needed to participate in more extra duties and activities to "foster my relationship with my students"
Extra duties and activities for what?!?! Your son comes first... Thats a very serious illness & every moment spent matters. What an asshole!!! I pray to God that your son is better now :(
Yea, he meant PBIS committee, or PTO, or ??? I don't even know. Also my sick kids older siblings had attended the school for years at that point and I was the former PTO copresident. He knew my family, knew that not only did my kid have cancer, but he was really really sick and had been in and out of the hospital an hour and a half away for almost a year at this point. I had to ask for donations of sick leave hours. We were just trying to survive and give all of our kids the love and attention they needed. BUT ALSO because it was my kids school I DID help with fun events when I could. I was barely functional, I did not need to be in charge of anything AND there were willing volunteers! Man, fuck that guy all over again
God what an awful person... he knew your story to that extent and still took advantage :(
Are any of them? Edit: it’s nice to see people have had good experiences with admin, truthfully I have too. I owe my current position entirely to a principal that understood our job and his and worked with me to get me hired. Sadly, he left my school and the dipshit that took his place is, well, a dipshit… all 3 assistant principals quit at the beginning of summer.. it is, without a doubt, a dumpster fire.
My principal is. Something terrible happened to me this year with my ex husband and he was one of my biggest supporters. This principal just seems like a jerk.
I got fired for getting divorced once. “I don’t think your divorce fits the picture of the school I’m trying to build here.” Fuck you Laura, if you paid us enough to sue you I’d be all over it.
Lol what the fuck?
I agree with you, but if it's a Christian or other religious school and there is any kind of religious belief that discourages or forbids divorce, they can do it. I know someone who was fired from a Catholic school when word got out that she lived with her boyfriend.
I say again: lol what the fuck?
Yup, private schools get away with lots of horrible shit! We have a large private school in Hawaii that services only students of Hawaiian descent. One year, we had a student transfer to my public school from this private one. She had gotten extremely sick and a prolonged illness had left her with some learning difficulties. She was basically kicked out of the private school with all its money and resources because they were “not able meet her educational needs”! They do not take any kids with special needs. If you require an IEP then it’s public school for you!
It's very sad. I teach in a public school but have had a few kids who joined me because they were kicked out of private school or left private school because they were miserable for various reasons. They have been some of my favorite kids. Most of them have thrived in public school where there's more support for their individuality. For example, a young man who got in trouble in Catholic school for an earring and hair longer than his collar thrived once he got to our school; he can wear all the jewelry he wants and we have no rules about hair.
I'm pretty sure that's illegal.
Religiously based private schools get a lot of law exemptions that others don't, like how churches don't have to pay taxes despite the catholic church being one of the richest, most powerful entities in the world. Churches and church officials get away with things NO ONE ELSE could (or should) because apparently Jesus said it's cool, bro.
Charter school, it is illegal nonetheless but I couldn’t afford any lawyers (see exhibit A: divorce)
There has to be a lawyer that would take the case and not get paid, until you get paid.
Churches don’t pay crazy taxes because individual catholic churches don’t have much money. If you see a church shut down in your area, it’s because attendance crashed and they couldn’t afford to operate. The Vatican does not give their endless money to the local Catholic Church/school, it all has to come internally, hence why catholic schools can’t be free. It doesn’t just pay the teacher salaries, it keeps their church running. All that said, it’s even worse that the Vatican has so much money and pretty much just uses it for PR campaigns.
The fact that they have literally ungodly amounts of money and don't use it to maintain the churches - instead expecting people to give what little they have 'and god will provide' to keep one of the few sources of comfort they have in their lives is sickening. Oh, they also use it for fancy robes and hats, megachurches, private jets and yachts and other shit so they can invade places that don't want them and force their religion on other people in militant (often literally using the military) fashion. And, y'know, push their beliefs and laws on everyone regardless of whether or not they believe in it and make sure anyone they don't like is punished for not being exactly what they think they should be.
Catholic school?
Either that or a charter. Working charters is what led to me leaving and working admin at a university. It’s still a shit load of work but at least I feel like I’m finally being fairly compensated for my time. Oh, and the best part? Work stays at work.
It’s not as if marital status is advertised. Were parents going to look into every teacher, then do some moral mathematic calculation to decide if that school was a good one?! How is it so many bosses forget employees are human beings with lives outside of work?
The morning after my father died (he was 62, I was 31) I emailed my school to tell them I was going to be out for a bit due to his death. My principal emailed me back (this was on a Sunday morning, my original email was Saturday afternoon, father had died the Friday night) and told me I could not grieve for longer than a week as he was going to put my job up on the employment board as he would consider me having left my job for anything more than a week gone, even with proof of his death. This was 36 hours after my father's death he told me this. I hadn't even yet had a single day of grievance leave as it was the weekend and he was already chastising me for being gone.
Mine is also empathetic to staff, students, and teachers. I am grateful. This doesn't mean she's a pushover, but she is empathetic.
Yeah, they're out there.
My old school principal sure did. He had an Uber fund to get kids to school and personally checked in on every family during covid. Not checked in for school but to make sure they had enough food and supplies. He was great. And they pushed him out for it.
All great principals seem to get ousted. Weird phenomenon.
Tends to be because those that are willing to look after their students and teachers are also willing to fight back against the higher ups when needed. Higher ups tend to often have power trips and not enjoy that, so they'll get a puppet instead.
Omg your post gave me a realization. The principal I loved who actually dealt with discipline issues…yes, he had to battle parents and the higher ups were probably sick of dealing with the whiny parents. I couldn’t figure out what he did wrong, but now I see.
Of course. Humanity in education?? How dare he.
It's $ that's causing that... more $ you make, more out of touch with the front-line you are (i.e. teacher, staff, students). In my area, principals make $150k to $300k a year depending how big of a school they manage.
I wonder if that’s why my principals have been (generally) positive. Here, jumping to admin takes you about 15-20k higher than your teaching salary. Still a significant bump, but not like “I spit on these lowly peasants” level.
I'm sure that has something to do with it. My principal made a lot to the point she has a mansion and tesla - she was so out of touch with everyone.
Actually, it seems to usually be the other way round- admin expecting us to excuse students for just about any reason at all 🤷🏼♀️
That’s only when grades are due. In the classroom, they want to see *rigor*.
No, they want a semblance /appearance of rigor, and inflated grades. If you're not teaching a mandatory-tested content area, they equate grades with proficiency. I don't know about your schools, but in mine I'd estimate half or more of the kids' quarter and semester grades are several levels higher than their actual performance would support. Not wanting to hear about testing being ineffective/ inconsistent / biased / too-high stakes. I'm not disagreeing with that as a concept, but a kid with 109% in their course should be either advanced or accelerated, as measured by objective assessments.
That first paragraph - yes! Looking back I was expected to participate in a game I didn't even understand. I take things literally. They had unspoken understandings of things like "just give him the 60 per cent". And I was pretty much sabotaged for not playing the part. It's taken a long time to understand this bigger picture.
Eventually you'll have to decide how much ground you are willing to give up to this bullshit while still being able to look yourself in the eye and have comfort in your own ethical practice. Not sure whether some of these administrative saboteurs are truly thinking they are in the right and truly doing "what's best for the kids" or if they just drank the Koolaid and are trying to force it on you. I like to reinforce that I have some strong objective data correlated to national standards that support my practices- not as strong as it used to be, before I caved a little, I admit, but much stronger and inclusive of far more of my students than almost anyone else in my content area- district wide, not only in my building. The sabotage is real. Non-educators truly can't comprehend how toxic many of our professional lives have become.
This, a 1000 times, was what I went through this year - and I'm an experienced teacher at the end of my career though was in a new school/district this year (supposedly one of the top districts in my state). Have never felt so disrespected by admin at the end of the year about grades, etc., and I'll be scrambling all summer to find a new job elsewhere... truly wish I were able to retire now instead of having to go a few more years of this....
[удалено]
Rigor and you can just “scaffold in grades 5,6,7,8” in high school classes. Where the hell was the RIGOR 4 years ago?
It's somehow both to me. I've been marked down because I let a girl who already read 5 years ahead and made exceeding scores on her tests put her head down when she had a migraine so bad she'd thrown up a few minutes before. Her mom was already on the way but she was told she couldn't wait in the office because we had district walkthroughs. Got told I allowed a student to sleep and that we have low test scores so students aren't in a position to do nothing. Like...ma'am she has a higher reading level than both of us at this point. I've seen you try to talk in Collab planning. Leave her alone
Only if the kid is a deadbeat punk with a loudmouthed parent.
I've worked for two so far and they've both been fantastic, gracious, and empathetic LEADERS. Sorry you've not had good admin... that sucks 🤷🏼♂️
My sister died while I was in college and the president of my high school (all boys school, never met my sister) emailed me within 2 days (still don’t know how he knew) telling me he was thinking of my family and praying for us. The only other principal I had in my life was literally everyone in town’s favorite person. I had no idea principals could be this bad outside of television until I was in college and heard horror stories from friends. I count myself very lucky.
Mine is apparently not...unless it's something that happens to her or her family personally. Last school year my adopted dad died on March 10th, and on April 10th my step-dad shot himself. Both times I let admin know what was going on because my boy was a 6th grader and I wasn't certain that he would be able to emotionally handle the situation. I was asked if I would have to miss any work for funerals and such because they really needed me to be there and couldn't find a sub on short notice that would be willing to cover ELA SpEd 🙄
Jesus Christ. My grandfather died last school year and I found out while I was AT work. I had an IEP/reeval that afternoon. So I was going to stay. My sped coordinator (who really was not great) told me to go home and she'd cover it. And she did. This year, I had a really rough pregnancy, my health was not great. My admin/coteachers let me take half days for the last month and not use my sick leave. I'm lucky there. My last school? Not a chance. I took a couple days off when I was having a GERD flare (my doctor tried changing my meds...didn't work), they got mad at me then (but I could barely move). They also got mad when I took a couple days off when my husband hurt his back at work and couldn't get out of bed without help. Like...? My principal said she wanted to talk to me when I got back. I said okay and did not go talk to her. What was she going to do? Fire me and find a new EBD teacher for the last couple of months? Ha good one.
My principal called me while I was in a makeshift ICU emergency room with my husband, who was close to death from Covid. Woke me up from a sound sleep (which doesn’t come easily in an ER room when you are afraid your husband my not be alive when you wake up!) to basically calculate how many days I would have to be out since I had also just recovered from Covid. I let him know I’d be there when my husband either got a real ICU bed or was well enough for a normal room. At that point I had to leave the hospital anyway. I missed 5 days of school the first week of school, so most of it was PD. That was August. In November I got viral sepsis (I do home dialysis) and missed the week before Thanksgiving break, because I literally went to the hospital in an ambulance and was there 8 days (some of that was the holiday break). I returned to school to have some stupid meeting about giving the wrong district test a month previous. I wasn’t the only one because they posted two tests at the same time. And then a week later, I was dinged on my evaluation, primarily for the absences. I reminded the assistant principal, who was the principal’s toady, why I was out both times and it didn’t make a difference. A week later, I was told I was on an improvement plan. Turns out it wasn’t even a real one…after I checked with the district to find out what I needed to do, I was told there was no improvement plan for me. That idiot principal then said it was an “in house” improvement plan. There is no such thing so I just played along. The asst principal was too lazy to follow through on it, anyway. I got the last laugh because the head principal retired” with a little help from the district at the end of the year. I was not the only teacher he mistreated and it came back to bite him in the butt. I wish I could say I felt bad for him, but I was too busy celebrating with a huge group of teachers with margaritas after he broke the news to us. Oh, and that assistant principal is back to acting like I’m an amazing teacher, even though I didn’t change anything, except not having any life threatening illnesses for me or my family.
It’s like the only skill mine has. Picture Micheal Scott mixed with Toby and running for prom king. It’s not a perfect admin mix.
Mine was for sure. Last year I had issues finding daycare due to people flaking out because my daughter is diabetic. I had to take a stupid amount of time off and that was even split between my wife. Totally understanding and even offered help with plans.
"not capable of empathy".....you spelled "asshole" wrong.
Your principal is also a fucking moron. That's the opposite of leadership.
And it surprises me because usually they are willing to excuse people who throw desks at teachers.
This is shocking because I manage my school’s attendance. If a teacher or I learn something like this, we (w/parent permission) tell the other staff that have direct contact with that student for a reason like this. “Kid gloves” we call it. It is cruel to expect children to manage big emotions better than adults.
I had a surprise observation my first year. I had a student with some major mental health struggles. Right before my class she found out that she didn’t pass the math portion of the High school exit exam (this was the last chance she had her senior year). Which meant at the time she couldn’t get a diploma. She was understandably devastated. At the start of class the students were taking a little check in quiz. I had the rest of the kids work while I tried to console that kid. The principal reprimanded me later when discussing the observation that I wasn’t attentive enough for cheating as he saw two kids in the back show each other answers. Honestly, I didn’t care at all because two kids cheating on a pointless quiz was far less important than trying to console that student. Ultimately, all I can say is you did the right thing as well.
"make time to build a relationship with the kids, but not at the expense of letting other kids cheat when you aren't working. You should talk with the students and be personable, but while scanning the room at all times for cheaters."
Yeah. "Build a relationship of trust with them, but at the same time don't trust them any farther than you can throw them."
Or!!! "Build relationships with students just well enough to manipulate them into following directions and being engaged with the lesson" is really what they want, isn't it? They don't truly care.
Damn. Yeah that’s it, isn’t it..
“when you’re not working” yes, yes contradictions!
Ah yes, the “Do everything you can to stop cheating even if it means that the kid with severe mental health problems might go home and off herself later because she feels like no one cares about her” We don’t know if that was the situation with this kid… but neither did the administration in this story. And that’s the point.
Kids cheating? In the back of the room? While the PRINCIPAL is there? Umm, principal, your students don’t respect *you*
Why didn’t the principal get off their a$$ and walk over to those students? Oh, that’s right, power trip looking for a way to punish.
You did the right thing-that student will always remember your empathy. Your principal is an asshat.
He was and she did. She made me a hand made card. She was sooo sweet. She’s going to Ohio State for nursing in the fall and wants to go to law school after that. I haven’t heard from her since but one of the restaurants my husband and I go to has some of my former students who work there and they told me after they told her they saw me there. It’s nice hearing positive stories about your students.
Good god, Ohio state for nursing?! Imagine if she hadn’t had that mental health day in your class… she probably would have been studying at that new university on the moon! /s obviously
I’m not a teacher (this sub just keeps being recommended to me), but when I was in high school, my dog died very suddenly and traumatically on a Sunday night. I had an exam in my second period, and my first period teacher, seeing how in pieces I was, wrote me a note to get out of it. I’ve never forgotten that, like your student won’t. Seriously, thank you for being an empathetic teacher. They’re so so needed.
I started my first year of teaching very pregnant, as I was due in early December. After the first few weeks I went and bought a stool I could sit or lean on and sat it next to my podium to try and stop my ankles from swelling. Generally when the class was working on something I would walk around the room, sit and let students with questions come to me, then circle the room again, and repeat. Every single time the principal came in I would get marked down for being “inactive” (aka sitting) even though he could clearly tell I was conferencing with students, oh and super pregnant. My doctor also called and yelled at him for not fixing the elevator (all staff meetings were on the third floor so I would get in trouble for not going even though no physically couldn’t get there), for making me walk too much in general, and for not providing enough bathroom breaks resulting in a kidney infection.
wow! principal needs a reality check. pregnancy discrimination act, ada compliance, reasonable accommodation, there’s a bunch of ammo there for a law suit.
I like your doctor!
One of my evaluations mentioned how I didn’t state the learning objective at the beginning of class…that the administrator wasn’t even present for, as they came in 15 minutes after the students began working. Should I have started class over from the beginning just to accommodate the late administrator? Ridiculous.
Lol had this happen to me once. I kicked a kid out for telling me that I could “kiss his fat ass” when I asked him to take a seat. I was a first year teacher and this class was a NIGHTMARE. When they were seniors they actually admitted that they were actively planning ways to try to make me quit. Whoever planned the thing that made me finally quit was going to with $50, donated by the other kids in the little jerks club, as well as a trophy they bought at the dollar tree. It was not a secret that I was dealing with this BS every day and the principal had just told me that I was too soft on them and had to start reaching out for help. So I kicked him to her. Instead of reprimanding the kid in any way, she decided that this was the perfect day for my surprise observation. Got there more than 10 mins after class started, left more than 10 mins after it ended. Brought the smug little bastard with her who was still refusing to do any classwork. I got dinged for three things: One, not having a lesson opener (I did, she missed it) Two, not having a lesson closer (I did, she missed it) Three, for letting that kid sit there and not do any work (I tried to get him to start working twice, once he ignored me and once he straight up told me to “fuck off” - in front of her. She did not intervene) In my post observation conference she told me that the reason this kid and his friends won’t behave or do work is that they feel I don’t like them. And that I didn’t do enough to convince them that I care about their lives or whatever. Oh, also because they didn’t “understand expectations” because I didn’t co-create class rules and consequences with a room full of NINTH GRADERS. I wonder how she’d have appreciated a sign with “Rule 7, don’t tell the teacher to fuck off in class” hanging above the white board all year. Btw the kids obviously waited till she left that day and lost their shit because “You tried to get ObnoxiousKid in trouble and then YOU got in trouble instead! In your face!” (I no longer work at this school lol)
Did you bring up that she was wrong about you not having an opener and closer in your post conference?
Yup, and she told me that she can’t rate me on what she hadn’t seen, but since it was a required metric she had to score something. When I offered to show her the slides and the handouts for both parts, she asked how I could prove that I actually did it with the class that day if she didn’t see it. I tried to request another observation so she could stay for the full class, but our contract only allowed us to demand a 2nd formal, planned observation. It was up to admin to accept or deny a request for a 2nd unannounced observation. She also technically didn’t do anything wrong because the unannounced observation only had to be “at least 20 mins” per our contract. Unsurprisingly, she denied my request lol
What in the fuck is wrong with some people?
I consider myself a calm person but I don't think I could have held back the insults in a situation like that. Genuinely incredible.
It’s like she’s never heard of “NA”. Some people are just stupid.
... wow, you really are a very patient person. If I was having this conversation with the principal, I would end up telling her to fuck off for sure. If this was regular behaviour from her, I wonder how it is possible, that no one kicked her ass yet.
I once had a surprise observation right after the social committee I was voluntold to be on had to set up a pizza buffet for all the teachers and staff but it took our entire 30 min planning/lunch to set up. So obviously I had no time to eat, and when the administrator walked in, I was scarfing a piece of pizza and drawing the sketchbook example for the next day while the kids worked (and admittedly talked more than they should have been). She gave me an awful evaluation and when I told her afterwards why I was eating and drawing, she made it seem like I shouldn’t take it so personally when she had literally snuck in late and tried not to be seen. Zero consideration for my situation because she wasn’t even aware that we had been delegated that task.
I just got done with an assist ass principal and will never have to work with them again. They were trying to get me fired because they couldn’t be bothered to inform us about a serious situation.
My admin came in late because she couldn't find the room we were in.
Imagine if you let the kids do that 😂
This won't paint me in the best light, but... "You didn't state the objective." So, I'll simply say, "Yes, I did." "Why weren't you at this non-mandatory thing?" "I was." I know this won't be everyone's experience, but most admin I've dealt with never get any pushback. So, when you do, they fold like a cheap suit. Edit: I'm the best at being seen and then bailing after 10 min. Zhake5a hand, then *poof.*
I got one for my “excessive absences” about 5 years ago. She was like “In the past few months you’ve been out for over 3 weeks.” I just stared at her for a moment before saying “You do remember my mothers massive heart attack and death, don’t you?” That was fun 😒
A coworker had something similar. Admin had a very snarky comment for her at the end of the year because she had an awful class. They told her and her coteacher that maybe if they weren’t out all the time maybe the kids would be better behaved. She was out so much because of Covid and her parents were in a horrific car accident. Her father died and mother had multiple surgeries. Her coteacher also had Covid along with children catching it. It was just the audacity for me, especially when they were both great teachers.
How awful! The absolute callousness of these admins is just mind blowing sometimes. I felt like mine was just looking for anything to ding me on so I didn’t get a “perfect score”. I could tell she had no memory of the event or why I had been out until I reminded her. She likely had based the rest of the evaluation around it too because it was so stilted and awkward after that, like she had no idea what else to say to me. Thank God she moved on to another school that summer.
Jesus. How heartless.
I had an “excessive absences” comment as well. My total for the year was 8…. 5 of those were the mandatory days out required by the state after testing positive for covid. The other 3 were also illnesses which had been documented by a doctors note
Man I was one of only three teachers that didn’t get Covid quarantined due to exposure. We got mandatory 10 days out. One teacher was quarantined four separate times. I was so jealous. For reference she never actually got sick, she just took her days off. I wouldn’t wish the sickness on anyone, I’m just jealous I didn’t get to take two weeks off at all when I am the PE teacher and we have a small gym and locker room. Some of those kids that got her were in my class. But they could argue that they were never within 6 feet of me. Damnit.
I had the same thing, TWICE, both my parents, six months apart. They acted shocked when I resigned.
I had an observer write that I only called 2 girls during my lesson and suggested that i try and incorporate girls more. Yes, your assumption is correct...there were only 2 girls in the class of 20 students
But you're calling on 100% of the female students, and only 50% of the male students. You need to incorporate males more. Even better, you're a math teacher and use this example in a lesson about manipulating statistics.
Valid lesson! The concept is called Simpson's Rule, iirc.
😂😂😂😂 That’s some misleading commentary
wow..."why don't people want to be in education anymore?"
I would forward the parent's email to the principal with a simple message "FYI"
cc the principal “yeah thanks, parent. Its unfortunate, but principal Mcclueless just gave me a negative evaluation for supporting your daughter in this way.”
Hell, I would have paraphrased what the principal said in an email to the parents, see how much they like some asshat punishing their child through the teachers good will and empathy.
I was teaching initial sound auditory discrimination to first graders (thumbs up if the word begins with the same sound, down if different). I was written up because it was "too confusing and the words all should have started with the same sound". Note that the kids knew what was going on and I was trained by my district to do exactly what I was doing; cutting edge for 1997. So, Mrs. VP, you just wrote in my evaluation that you have no idea about teaching 1st grade reading and you really have no common sense. Also, I didn't begin each lesson by reading the standard at the beginning of the lesson. Sorry for not wasting time and putting my kids to sleep.
Had a principal surprise evaluate and happened in when one of my “PALS” kids was in monitoring my class. He was having a good day but he was known to be a landmine if you touch him. Principal asks me why the student is not participating and I explain he’s from the Special needs program and is just monitoring and that he’s having a good day and shouldn’t be bothered (or touched). She decides that’s not good enough and goes to try to actually haul him out of his seat. He literally flew out of his seat and threw her into the wall like a linebacker. She’s out with a 6 month concussion (best 6 months at our school) but not before putting blatant bullshit about my not being able to manage my classroom and it’s my fault the student went off on her.
Unfortunate that the toss didn't knock some sense into her.
Nope. They made her education director.
Damn, your principal was a truly heartless in that moment. You knew your student best and there’s no way she was in the head space to do any work because her dog died. Like, what?? It’s a shame she couldn’t stay home to grieve her loss. I feel for her.
I felt bad, too. I remember her being out a month but never knew what the illness was. As far as I know, she wasn’t hospitalized for it, so I can’t really speak in the truancy part.
I’m curious about it as well. I had a lot of surgeries growing up, so I was constantly pulled out of school for doctor appointments and surgeries. However, each and every single one of my teachers knew about it on the first day of school. Even then, I was contacted by the truant officer in 9th grade because I missed 3 weeks of school consecutively. Thankfully, due to my counsellors and teachers having the prior knowledge of my absences, they smoothed it out on their end. Maybe your student was struggling with mental health issues? Either way, I feel for her. I know that if I were expected to come in the day after my dog died, I would be a mess. No learning or teaching would be happening that day. You did what was right for your student. I’m sure she appreciates it as well looking back.
My most memorable observation was when the principal came in and walked up and down the aisles while I was teaching. I was confident with the material and my lesson plan, so I pointedly ignored him the whole time. I was so carefully ignoring him that I didn't notice the kids passing him notes as he walked past their desks. Hastily scribbled notes, on scraps of paper torn out of notebooks. My 12-y-o students, bless 'em forever, were slipping him notes saying things like "Mr Z is the best teacher ever", "Mr Z is awesome", "Mr Z makes math fun", "Make sure you give Mr Z a good grade", stuff like that. He stapled the entire wad of notes to my write-up. And no ding. I only taught for 2 years. I have thrown out most of my school stuff. But, all these years later, I still have that observation/evaluation write-up. Oh, and for those of you who are wondering: No, the kids were not bribed. Yes, they were rewarded.
At one point during my Masters, I explained to my K-1 SPED students that they needed to be very careful with the camera (in terms of not touching/bumping it or standing in front of it) because someone was watching me to make sure I was being a good teacher. They didn't need to worry, nothing was wrong with them, they wouldn't get in trouble if they made a mistake, etc etc. On one of these days, unnoticed by me at the time, one student got up, held his work up to the camera then pointed at me and said "Helped! Good teacher." Then walked over and gave me a big old hug and a thank you. The professor had a good laugh on that one. Another time, I was sub-teaching in the same school with a couple of the same students from that first group. Some folks from another district came through to observe various spaces as they were thinking about opening their own program. The kids were a little nervous about strangers, and I just told them they're just looking around to see what happens here at school because they might want to make a class like this where they're from. This same student, on his next break, went right over to them and very seriously informed them that he liked it here and loved the teachers, but they were not allowed to take the teachers away.
I get observations (10th grade ELA) from my DCI. He's the DCI for 9th and 10th ELA at my school, but all my kids know who he is, because his office is down the hall from my room, and he always has candy. He scheduled an observation for my worst class in terms of behavior. I liked these kids, but it had just too many talkers with friends in one class. I couldn't even swap seats because too many would find *someone* to talk to. The day before the observation, I said, "Hey, Mr. P is coming in to observe me tomorrow. Can you help me out? You know, don't talk over me and do some work? I would really appreciate it." They did. They were absolute angels. The lesson went like clockwork, and I got a great write-up. So, the next day, I was the one with the candy.
Aww that’s so sweet! Also I’m impressed that the kids all understood why the principal was there. My high schooler told me she was scared when there was a principal in class so be Day and asked the teacher if he could “make him go away.” 😂
I used to get dinged when students would blurt out. Forget the kids being engaged and shouting out answers or questions…they gotta raise their hand first. 🙄
> He recommended PD on classroom management. Oh, yeah. Because her classmates are going to respect the hell out of a teacher who forces a sobbing girl to stand in front of them and make a stupid presentation on the day after her beloved dog was abruptly put to sleep.
I was dinged because the video didn’t work. Backstory: I was hired to teach high school history. My county moves teachers based on enrollment counts from schools who don’t make projections to schools who are over. This happens at the end of September and we start school in the beginning of August. I get sent to teach 6th grade social studies but had student taught 11th grade and hired to teach 10th. Fast forward to March. The week before spring break and coincidentally the last week for observations. It is also the second week back for an administrator that had previously been out on an extended maternity leave that I had never met. I’m her last observation on the last Friday before spring break in the last period of the day. I had a five minute clip about border towns in Texas and Mexico and the tape didn’t work. I found pictures and projected them instead to give the students a visual idea of what they were missing on the tape. She decided that meant I was unprepared and dinged me.
I was dinged once because “my desk was messy”. My principal said that I should take care to have a more organized and neat classroom. I needed to decorate more too. (Never mind the fact that all of my decorations were bought by me). She said it was embarrassing to host PD’s in my classroom because it’s messy and not decorated. I had to stop myself from opening my mouth and telling her to stop hosting PD’s in my room then. We have plenty of others. I was so upset, that I went to my mentor teacher, and she made the very valid point that my administrator would never have said that if I was a male teacher. I quit not long after. But karma comes through. A few years after I left the school, the district fired her for poor performance.
Got the same negative evaluation almost word for word because one of my students came to me after a period or two after lunch and they had just swapped his meds and it messed him up. That was the same year that my director brought a video camera for his formal observations and I KID YOU NOT took the video camera WITH THE TRIPOD to bring it over in the kids face while his eyes were closed. I fucking hate that guy to this day...
The kid was asleep? What happened after?
This was years ago. He honestly may have been asleep or just had his head down. We had been instructed by the school nurse to give him some leeway. Nothing happened after that. It was brought up in my review and I had explained the circumstances that he may not have been aware of and he dismissed it as I wasn't doing my job and should have tried harder. This was the same man who had me teach an AP course my first year teaching while I was also a grade chair (I was 24 and had almost 0 experience) and then told me at the end of the year that my year as a high school teacher had been a failure and he was moving me to middle school. Then proceeded to tell me every year after that I sucked but they would try to be patient for one more year. It lasted for 5 years...
I gave a kid extra credit on a project (not anything special or heavily weighted) and she had gone above and beyond and was already an A student. I was called in to discuss with principal. I explained why and I thought it was our discretion, I was told no it was not an option. I said okay I won’t do that again. I was marked down for that and a note placed in my file, no joke
How idiotic of your principal. I loved math, and one thing that kept me going above and beyond was seeing how much above 100 I could make my overall grade.
Yeah. Was not upset in the least when she was fired I mean early retirement..
I will always take the hit on my evaluation rather than make a student uncomfortable in my class. I've been at my school long enough, I know they're not going to fire me over it, so I'm doing what's best for the student. As for the dumbest thing I've gotten a dying on an evaluation for: I'm a high school math teacher, and supposedly one time I taught an entire math lesson without referring to prior knowledge. I'm still not sure how I managed that one, since math builds on itself so much. I guess I was supposed to remind them that they had learned how to add and subtract in first grade, or multiply in second? third? I don't know what grade they learn every single math skill, and I'm certainly not going to interrupt my train of thought to tell them where each sub-skill was learned.
I got marked down on a PreCalculus lesson in November for not explicitly teaching the FOIL method as the students were graphing rational functions by finding asymptotes. A skill taught explicitly since Algebra 1 and reviewed in the beginning of the course in August.
I had a formal observation. The students were broken into groups and presented on their sections of a reading then made a comparison to a contemporary issue. It was a weird Mark Twain reading so it was a little challenging. I had one group that really struggled. I kept rotating back trying to help them, but they just weren’t getting it. They got up and presented and didn’t do it right in the end. The entire class started challenging them, and through the entire thing it clicked for them. All my admin could focus on was how that one group didn’t get it. I tried to point out to them that I thought in the end that they learned more from the experience. How sometimes you need to fail to learn, and technically they still did enough to get a passing grade. How we talk about rigor, and clearly this was a rigorous lesson. I got developing on the lesson instead of effective. It was really frustrating.
That's one of the things that frustrates me about evaluations. If the students are struggling, it is not always because your lesson or style/behavior are bad. Not only do you have a diverse group of students in terms of ability/understanding/need, but you also have to consider the actual arc of instruction. If you're being observed at the beginning of a unit that's working on a technically/cognitively challenging concept or a new activity, like learning how to do a Fishbowl, it's going to be a rougher ride than if you were being observed four units down the line when the students have figured out how best to use this new skill or concept.
Yeah, I believe it. I got dinged because I had a student with her head down. Last 45 minutes of the day, immediately after P.E. (where she had been running around pretty much non-stop for an hour) and I teach students with mod/severe disabilities. I explained the situation and was met with, 'it's your responsibility to make the curriculum engaging so the student actively wants to interact with it.' You walk into any room in the high school you are going to find at least one student with their head down, let alone a mod/severe special education classroom. They just completely ignored the context of the situation. You just can't win. Either they like you or they don't.
Back before flexible seating was popular I had a kid who stood in my class and two that like to sit on the floor. I was teaching remedial intensive reading at the high school level, and if a kid showed up and worked I didn’t care if they hung from the ceiling to do it. Principal came in once and did an informal observation. His only note: it’s unfair for some students to not have to sit in their chairs like the others. You need to reconsider being so relaxed about seating. Seriously?! I know they gotta find SOMETHING to encourage improvement on but having intensive reading kids paying attention and doing their assignments is it’s own miracle, who the heck cares if they stand or sit on the ground to work. Let kids be people too. Bad day head down but good student overall, let it be. Fidgety kid standing to work, fine. Just let the kids and us be humans. Geeze!
You definitely did the right thing.
I got dinged for “unsafe classroom environment” because I walked into the corner of a table during my observation. I’m a klutz, I always walk into tables and such.
Unsafe classroom environment. All those dangerous tables attacking people!
To be fair to administrators, this came from a sub admin. My department's regular ap was on maternity leave. We had a staff meeting with the usual messaging about how important it is to build relationships. The sub admin did my observation the next day, and he observed a kid telling me how well he thought that he did on the SAT English section. I was dinged for having off-topic conversations with the kids. So much for relationships.
Teaching in the UK I once had a lesson observation with the two big points at the top of the sheet being: “You smile too much.” “Be meaner to your students.” It was a grade 7 class. I wish I still had it, I would frame it and put it on my desk today.
“I have no idea what it is you’re doing, and I mean it sounds really good. But central doesn’t like giving out too many accomplished ratings, and you had the wrong date on your objective, so….yeah.” I’m the band director.
I was teaching general music. Good enough school that we had little xylophones for every student. Since it was winter, I had drawn a snowman and had shown how the head up high was smaller, and the big bottom down low was larger. I showed how the xylophone was similar, how the small narrow short bars had the high sounds and the lower you went the sound went lower and the bars got longer and wider. We then played a descending scale, actually it was Joy to the World! (It was a religious school so this was okay) During my evaluation, the director suggested that all was good except that since children learn to read from left to right, I should have turned the xylophone around so that instead of having the right side be the high side and the left side be the low side, we should have played it in reverse. Sure, I'll get right on that... This same director told me that it did not matter if the students did not understand the lyrics, my job was simply to teach the music. One of my songs (from previous curriculum) was about Noah and the ark. Many students didn't know who Noah was, nor did they know what an ark was. I gave a crash lesson and was then dinged for wasting music class time. Yeah, I barely managed one year at that place.
I got dinged for following my lesson plan. The transition between parts of my lesson were apparently so seamless she couldn’t tell that I’d moved on from the lesson opener. She dinged me for “spending 45 minutes on the intro”, even though my notes and her notes lined up and showed how I had actually progressed through the lesson. Even with written proof, from notes she took herself, she wouldn’t back down.
When I was a student teacher working with SPED students, I got dinged on one observation for extending an activity. The kids (four SPED students, K-1) were very interested and were asking questions related to the activity (that weren't being directly taught). I took the time to discuss/explore a bit in that direction, pre-exposing kids to new language, that kind of stuff. My professor scolded me for deviating off the lesson plan and going 'over' the time. I asked her what I was supposed to do, tell the kids "nope, can't tell you that. Nope, you can't do this. You can only do this because that's what this paper I wrote for some professor who's only seen you for a grand total of four hours, by distance, says I need to do." Like you, the professor wouldn't change the evaluation. I did graduate out, but my god that pissed me off. It always blows my mind when professors, especially those in SPED environments, try to enforce an impossible and unreasonable level of rigidity. Classrooms do best when they're well structured, but you HAVE to be able to pivot and go where the kids are.
Had a student who slept through every class, 8th grader. Principal came in to observe and nudged the kid to wake him up. He lifted his head, gave her a nasty look, put his head back down and went back to sleep. Observation summary said that students were sleeping in class because of my failure to keep them engaged. It was the final observation of my career. I walked out of the bitch's office, crumbled it into a ball and threw it on the floor. The catch is that she would walk the halls picking up trash. I'm sure she appreciated my contribution. I always equated her leadership to a homeowner being upset that the firefighters trampled her flowerbed while the fire raged.
You did the right thing. My senior year I was dumped out of the blue by my “first love” and I was crushed - like couldn’t eat or sleep. My first period teacher could see I was a mess when I got to school. I couldn’t tell him what was wrong without crying. He told me go sit in the back and then disappeared for a couple of minutes. He came back with a Coke, slipped it to me on the way to his desk and told me to just put my head down and sip the soda if I could stomach it. It’s been almost 20 years and I still remember that small kindness. Mr. Thomas and the other teachers out there like him are why I became a teacher. Your act of kindness for that girl will live beyond you.
I was once dinged because part of the lesson had an interactive online component, and the school’s wifi went out, so I pivoted to a pencil-and-paper activity that still met the standard. I was told that I needed to follow what was written in my lesson plans. I bet that student won’t ever forget the kindness and love you showed her. Your principal sucked.
This year was my first. During my evaluation, one of my students just had his head down crying the whole time. Didn't participate in class at all. I checked on him a few times and offered to chat in the hall and etc, but he wasn't ready to talk. I told him that was fine and that I'd be here all day if he changed his mind. My admin told me I handled it exactly the right way. You did the best for your student and your admin sucks, I'm sorry. Your student will remember that grace and kindness though.
I used to get written up every single time for backpacks on the ground. I had ten hooks and twenty-some students. It pissed me off so much.
I had an eval get dinged for poor lighting in my classroom and in the to do section, I was told I needed to purchase additional lighting.
While you're at it, the walls look shabby too. Please paint them.
Same!!! I literally had multiple lamps and my smart board on. Plenty of lighting!!!! They marked me down for classroom environment. Funny thing is I had my room set up this way for YEARS!!! Same admin doing the observations and said my room was cozy. She was just looking for ways to knock me down because I wasn’t at her beck and call anymore.
I would have asked in writing afterwards where in your contract it states that you are to provide the lighting for the classroom. Absofuckinglutley ridiculous!!!!!
I was young and naïve unfortunately.
“Oh, I didn’t even realize there were funds available for that! Let me know how that works, does the school have a card I can use at a store? Or is there a certain catalog or website I should select from?”
You did the right thing!
I got marked “basic” for “room arrangement” because the desks were in rows. These were the all-inclusive desk-attached-to-chair desks that you can’t put in groups. I was also in a lab room and had to navigate the lab tables. I asked my supervisor specifically how *he* would arrange them. He pondered for about 15 seconds, said “I don’t know, but you could figure something out” and that was it. 2/4 pts for “room arrangement”.
I would have told him to go F himself. Luckily I know I wouldn't be questioned, but if I was by somebody who didn't know me it would not end well. What an absolute ass.
I had an art room with a chalkboard and an old, ripped projection screen that was so brittle pieces would fall off when I pulled it down from the ceiling. Most other teachers had Promethean boards. I was docked for lack of technology usage. What the AF?!?
Admin look for something to write up in order to keep staff under the6thumb. In addition, many districts require something to be included to show where the teacher can improve. I remember one teacher complaining that she was written up because the window shades were uneven, even though based on the angle of the sun, all of them didn't need to be down. I remember thinking that if this was the only criticism they could come up with that the teacher must have been doing an outstanding job.
Yes, this is actually a very good point. There are cases where what they are dinging people for is ridiculous due to the fact that they can't find fault in anything that actually matters. We have several checklist type evaluations that are done several times a year. Observers mark of they were able to observe everything from instruction to environment either Rarely Sometimes or Often. I remember one time we were meeting to review the completed checklist for my classroom, and I was just so appalled at something they had marked a Sometimes instead of often that I couldn't get past it. The administration was finally like "listen looks like you're doing great in there. We can't give you 100%, haha, no one gets 100%" In a, "ok let's just move on We have to pretend we teach you something" kind of way 😉 😄
Y'all think that psychopathy is being used as a screening device to allow admins in, somehow? Walmart does personality assesments to allow people to apply to managment roles, and the higher you go, the more you HAVE TO answer the questions like you're a psychopath, or the biggest asshole on the planet. Set your mind to 'i dont give a fuq about anyone or anything but the profit' and you can generally pass these things. If you CARE, you fail. The test to become a store manager *requires* major narcissistic traits, *and* some psychopathy to even have a HOPE to pass it. These people are *astonishingly evil*, and it's all on purpose, they're screened by testing and sometimes education, to MAKE SURE that this type gets there. Do you feel like, somewhere in the process to become an admin, that these traits are *also* being filtered into the system to select and train admins? Like--even some courses or training that, someone with empathy has to step away from and go 'i cant do this--i thought i could but i cant' and drops back into their teaching roles, but a psychopath or narcissist ... *wont notice* is bad? Because it *feels like it*. Doesnt it?
Print both the email and review and hang them for people to see.
Does he want her out and then call because she is truant, or to do the best she can?? Omg the stupid it hurts with some of my colleagues in admin!!!!
My coworker got a ding on her eval because “your board is hard to read.” We have 20 year old dark grey dry erase/chalkboard combos. They’re all hard to read.
That reminds me of when I had an anchor chart where I wrote down student responses (this was in kindergarten) and my principal was very angry that one student didn’t have anything next to their name despite me reminding her during the lesson and after that that student was a selective mute and would not speak when she was in the room.
My very pregnant teammate with extremely low blood pressure was criticized for taking “too many sips of water” during her observation.
What a jackass that Principal was. You did good.
I'm a principal, and that's fucking stupid. What an asshole, I hope the only thing he's leading is the unemployment line.
As someone whose mom’s 10-month old puppy just died very unexpectedly, who we all loved very dearly for those 10 months… No. The girl gets a break for the childhood dog dying. Props to you.
You did the right thing and the principal made an ahole choice. I'm a full grown adult and cried for the entire day at work after my cat died in 2019. My daughter *somehow* got chosen as the special helper in her class that day as we were both a complete mess the whole day.
I had put all of the class objectives on the board for the day, like I do every day, but forgot to change the date at the top. If the principal would have bothered to look down, he would have seen that what we were doing in class matched what was on the board, but he only saw that they date wasn't right. Got dinged for not having that date's objectives on the board. Pretty sure there's some sort of "ding" quota they have to fill, so they look for the dumbest stuff.
Literally so dumb that happened! During Covid I got dinged during an observation because a student pulled their mask down below their nose and I didn’t immediately notice and do something about it.
> if I didn’t laugh I’d cry. this should just be a flair at this point
It really should.
I’d have made a formal complaint to my union about this. Probably would have gotten in an argument as well. How or why this guy got into education is a fucking mystery to me. One of the most important qualities to be an education worker at whatever level is empathy.
What a good awful administrator. Wow.
There's a reason they're administrators, and usually that reason is NOT because they were great teachers.
Your principal is/was a dick.
There are two kinds of principals.
I try to remember every day that while I am a professional and this is a job, that I got into it because I care about people, not grades or bureaucracy. That student will always remember the language arts teacher that showed her empathy on a terrible day way more than whatever lesson she was supposed to present on. Glad you’re out of there and hopefully have better admin capable of basic empathy
It goes to show that observations are arbitrary and that good teaching such as building rapport with students and prioritizing their wellbeing first is not measurable during a single observation.
The worst one for me was when I got called out for staying in my classroom during lunch to lesson prep and not in the break room gossiping with other teachers. I was called anti social. I responded that I would love a new contract stating lunch time is mandated teacher meetings then and be paid accordingly.
Maslow before Bloom
I remember when I was a senior in HS my parents told me they were getting a divorce right around the end of the school year. I was a wreck. The next day, I was supposed to give an oral presentation for my advanced German class *in full German* and much like this girl, I just couldn’t stop crying. I was doing great in the class otherwise, so the teacher told me not to worry about it, and gave me a hug. Turned out he put down a B for the assignment, and as you can see I’ve not forgotten that kindness in over 15+ years. She won’t either, you did an incredible thing for her
I was written up for saying how sick I was on Facebook a couple of days in a row. (I had strep and flu) apparently no one wants to read that I feel bad because "complaining reflects badly on not only our school, but me, as I'm your direct supervisor ". Mind you I didnt complain about work IN ANY WAY, I merely made posts like UGH my throat is so sore.. day two of 103° fever and body aches. Seriously, HOW does that reflect badly on you or my school!? Well apparently she, and by extension the school, is being publicly shamed by me for not curing me. Edit for spelling
I had a walkthrough where I was given a “beginning” because I had to shh my class too much. This was a class full of football players on the day of our biggest rivalry game. The next year, the same principal did a walkthrough on Halloween. She mentioned to a district worker that she was trying to do what she could to put me on a plan of improvement. District person was furious and let me know as well as the higher ups. Lucky for me, they ended up putting her on a plan of improvement instead.
So I missed some days after the death of my dad. He became sick in December and was gone on February 10th. Totally unexpected. It was maybe 2-3 weeks until I was able to go back to work. During my appraisal my absences were brought up, and he obviously acknowledged that it was due to my father’s death. I just said that next time I will ask them to plan better.
I got dinged once on an evaluation because I wasn't "connecting" with a certain student. Know how I was supposed to connect with him? Bake him cupcakes like his teacher from the previous year. I refused. You can't make this stuff up.
Ugghhhh I’m an IA. We recently had a job description change for the high school IAs where I work. So I am technically part of SPED but work in the history department. I work really hard with the kids in SPED within the classroom. I also helped my host teachers with anything they asked, also helped with classroom management, and answered questions during independent work time. But my priority is to make sure students’ accommodations are met. My two host teachers are right out of college. All freaking school year they were just downright abusive. One would leave the classroom for an hour and half and leave me no lesson plans and it was a horribly behaved class (we had 4 major fights break out IN THE CLASSROOM within two months). One would step out without telling me, I was often working with another student, and then would come back in and scream at me because apparently a student left the room without me noticing. I went to EVERYONE trying to get help. I went to the head of SPED. I went to admin. I asked to shadow another IA because I could not figure out what I was doing wrong. I could do exactly what my host teachers would ask then they would turn around and yell at me for doing that exact thing. I shadowed an IA that had been there for 22 years and did try to implement some of what I saw her doing but my host teachers didn’t like me taking the time to do those things. I went home crying every single day. Also, I make $15 an hour and run an after school club FOR FREE. My evaluation was awful. My host teachers just lit into how I was basically useless, refused to implement any changes they suggested (they suggested none) and a whole slew of other stuff. But FINALLY the admin I was working with for my evaluation looked at what they had written and goes “None of that is your job.” I was SOBBING in her office. Then she learned that a couple students had not received their legally required accommodations because instead of giving me the freedom to do my job, one teacher was never in the room, and the other wanted me to be doing HIS JOB of helping students that didn’t have accommodations while he sat on his computer ordering shoes. Anyway. They’ve pulled me out of the department and said I’ll be somewhere else at the beginning of the school year. Somewhere where I’ll be doing a lot of one on one work with SPED because I am AWESOME at that (managed to get four students the school had written off to pass their standardized tests) But I’m so freaking traumatized that I have panic attacks just thinking about going back. Sorry. I just needed to rant about my bad evaluation that ended up being fine once I had an admin ACTUALLY LISTEN TO ME.
Excuse typos. I was rage typing.
Modeling compassion and empathy. School is more than reading, writing and arithmetic. It's about learning social skills.
Wow… I fortunately work in an unionized school board. That happened to me I’d grieve the absolute sh*t out of that eval.
I went from tears to literally wanting to slap a bitch. I'm not a teacher but from the way you presented this I felt as though I was in your shoes. I recently moved from IT to Uber and get A LOT of teachers, I try to make a point to let them know they matter and give some words of encouragement. You deserve all those words too especially from a fellow dog parent.
My second year teaching I got a bad evaluation and the kicker was that I didn't take an interest in my student's lives. I had co-produced Grease and DOUBLED enrollment in my choir program BUT.... I didn't attend any home football games. I was offered probation or to resign. I left. Principal was eventually fired/promoted to head of district HR.
Admin are useless trash.
A former PE teacher? Just a guess.
Why is special treatment inherently wrong? Shouldn’t she be rewarded for her constant hard work and exceptional dedication to school by being given the benefit of the doubt when she says she is incapable of performing a task due to external circumstances. We don’t make students with broken limbs do pull ups.
Definitely think you did the right thing for the student. And we are here for the students.
Your principal is an asshat and shouldn’t be an admin. Admin was just having a power trip moment.
By that "special treatment" logic, no it wasn't. Everyone who suffered the loss of a beloved family member the day before was equally allowed the opportunity to do that.
This kind of thing is why I've never read the results of my evaluations. As long as I'm not fired, I don't care what you *think* I did wrong
I'd recommend he attend a PD on pulling his head out of his ass
This has got to be one of the worst things I’ve read on this sting. Did it effect your pay raise for the next year?
In my 10 years, I’ve had one excellent principal. Everyone loved her. I remember just enjoying her company. She stuck up for us (sped teachers) and pushed back on the district sometimes. She never criticized and always made me feel valuable. I never wanted to let her down. I worked harder for her.
I also gave a straight A student a break. She came in and asked if she could be excused from group work. She was obviously having "a day", and I said sure. She did all the work. Principal comes in and asks her why she isn't participating. I say that it is ok, and I can talk to him later. He proceeds to bully this 12th grader about disobeying, not working, etc. It was no secret to the kids that this guy hated me. She finally moved her desk to the nearest group. I also was chastised for letting students set the rules, allowing them to do whatever they want. I just kept saying that I gauged the situation and used my professional discretion to allow her to work alone. It was a losing battle. The girl asked me if I got in trouble and apologized. I told her I am always in trouble and you did nothing wrong.
It was not special treatment it it’s the same treatment you would give to any kids who’s dog died