I have jokingly told my colleagues at school that I was going to start a running bitch list of all the stuff that goes wrong at our campus and in our district in general. I'm gonna start it here and probably add and edit until we get our end-of-year surveys to fill out -- then I won't forget anything!
OK, Unloading with both barrels here:
1. Open House held on the NIGHT WE STARTED EASTER BREAK!
2. ILLEGALLY and repeatedly being asked by the technology department to submit technology lesson plans on top of our weekly lesson plans to our administrator. I'll probably cite the Education Code on this one!
3. The unGodly amount of time it takes for a computer to get repaired in our district -- because classroom computers are not "priority" (this is the exact word that we were told when we called -- it seems that administrators come before the kids)
4. The absolute hide-and-seek method for finding the install files for Star and AR
5. The stupid way the technology "curriculum" (HA!) was thrust upon the teachers this year. No scope and DEFINITELY NO sequence, wrong TEKS listed on the scope they finally DID give us.
6. No useful suggestions of websites from our I.T. (she's been seen by 4th/5th grade teachers sitting on her @$$ and playing on the computer during the day). The website links she DOES send us are often not even remotely related to the core curriculum TEKS for our grade levels.
7. The incorrect, conflicting, and non-understandable definition of "integration of technology" we keep getting from the head shed C & I -- he thinks that COMPUTER-BASED INSTRUCTION is the only true integration.
8. 3rd graders with no running water or bathrooms next to our classrooms because TECHNOLOGY didn't want to move the special areas computer wires down to the other end of the hall.
9. The $10,000 marquee we are STILL raising money for and no one wants but our principal -- CEIC has voted it down SEVERAL TIMES -- that money could be better spent on a small copier for each teacher's lounge to save us on walk time.
10. The fact that our principal allowed a child to move to another class "for an academic challenge" just because the parents have money -- without consulting the classroom teachers before doing it. The child is now doing WORSE on her report cards --the "academic challenge" BS was just so she could be with her friends.
11. The fact that the C&I guy overruled the GT testing deadline for THESE SAME PARENTS AND SAME CHILD 3 months after the deadline. Apparently it IS who you are.
12. Bilingual Dept. having us send her the report card grades of all the denial students on a separate form each 6 weeks. This is redundant paper work (since she could get a copy of the report cards herself) and probably also is illegal under the Paperwork Reduction Act.
13. Bilingual Dept. having classroom teachers be pulled out of classroom for 2 hours to do RPTE testing on denial kids -- we were told of this on the Friday before the test (a Monday). The excuse we got was that they thought it would be better for a class to miss their teacher for 1/2 day instead of the Bilingual dept. head spending several days doing it. I hate to tell them, but 20 NON BILINGUAL NOT EVEN DENIAL kids had no language arts teacher for 2 hours -- that is not 1/2 a day to a team-teacher THAT IS A WHOLE DAY OF LANGUAGE ARTS!
14. The lack of places to sit on the playground and at the car pick-up areas. Some of the day care kids have to wait out there for 30 or more minutes.
15. The fact that the K-2 teachers had to paint their own rooms with their own money after the teachers had fought for years to get the maintenance dept to promise it would be done last summer, and they never came through. This was a school board meeting item last year -- what happened?
16. The unbalanced classrooms at the new school vs. other campuses. Why do they have under 16 kids per class and another campus has been over the legal limit all year? Draw the boundaries a little broader and be very strict with the transfer requests.
17. Our campus seems to get behavior problem students that SHOULD BE attending another campus. I had 3 such students in my room last year from that same school, and 1 this year.
18. The inconsistent way that discipline is handled on our campus. One of our students was allowed to repeatedly do no homework without consequences after the parent refused the usual punishment of after school detention because it was an inconvenience to the parent to drive into town after 4pm. BTW This is a student who SHOULD BE AT ANOTHER CAMPUS! The ass't principal even told one student who was sent to the office, "If this is about no homework don't even come in here."
19. The 1 hour of wasted time for "ENRICHMENT" Ya, know BULLSHIT is an enrichment for soil and this is exactly what that hour is. I could be teaching more than 2 hours a day if we didn't have to accomodate that stupid schedule.
20. The fact that we keep getting told by head shed to do everything the same as every other campus, yet we seem to be the only campus that tries to follow those directives -- right down to the schedule that we followed at the beginning of the year that they recommended and FAILED TWICE at implementing. Every campus is not the same -- we shouldn't be trying to make them that way. THIS IS A BLATANT MICROMANAGING NIGHTMARE
21. Having an I.T. that is rude, hateful, and bitchy to all staff. Told a staff member to get out fo the way and not touch a computer that had a problem because she would "just screw it up"
22. Music teacher/Music Nazi has reportedly LEFT MARKS on children grabbing them. She yells at them and the students and parents complain or drop out of choir (which has been cancelled) because she is so mean to the kids. If a classroom teacher behaved in this manner they would very likely be fired.
23. The erosion on the playground lower field that has caused to children to twist their ankles and get injured. The maintenance dept. merely dumped some LOOSE DIRT onto the holes the day before a major rain. The problem is now WORSE. The kids have lost half of their playground.
24. Maintenance dept. leaves materials and equipment under the building by the playground with a sign that says "Stay Away" further limiting the amount of play space the children have.
25. Parents unloading kids in the back of the building -- they sit in the employee parking spaces to braid kids' hair and sign folders and by the time employees find another parking place, they turn around and leave -- forcing the employees to park far from their own building and walk further.
26. The fact that we cannot park in all the spaces behind the building.
27. The lack of aides in the inclusion classroom -- there is one who comes to my room during "enrichment" and one who comes every other day to help a bilingual student. The SpEd teacher comes every day for 30 minutes. There are NO TITLE AIDES AT ALL DURING THE LANGUAGE ARTS BLOCK FOR THE INCLUSION CLASSROOM.
28. Many of the speech, SpEd, Resource, Inclusion, bilingual (denials), 504 ADD kids were put into the same homeroom - ostensibly for "scheduling purposes" for SpEd, but it has made the regular classroom instructional day scheduling a nightmare - kids are pulled in and out at odd times throughout the day -- this makes for an unbelievable amount of ARDs (that are always held during our already-limited planning time) FURTHERMORE -- many of these kids could still probably benefit from the stability of a self-contained classroom, but we HAVE to be team-teaching "like everyone else" WHICH IS NOT HAPPENING -- WHY ARE WE THE ONLY CAMPUS FOLLOWING THIS "RULE"????? STOP MICROMANAGING!!!!!!!!!!!
29. The airconditioners that are falling through (being held up by timbers over the gaping hole next to the building).
30. No "lounge" -- merely "workrooms"
31. TOO MANY FUNDRAISERS THIS YEAR OMG!
32. The stupidity of having the kids stand in line for 15 minutes of their 30 minute lunch period telling the cafeteria ladies what they want to eat before they are allowed to punch in their number and go through the line.
33. An inordinate number of ARDs, meetings, "trainings" and other time-consuming fracass that eats away the little bit of planning hour we have every day. (It is further infuriating that the secondary teachers all have much more planning time than we do and fewer subjects/classes to plan for).
34. On top of the planning periods being taken up -- we are now tutoring 2 days per week, so there goes our after-school plan time, too!
35. Teachers seem to have more duties than the aides...Good Lord, when I was an aide, we did ALL recess duty, PLUS before or after-school duty, PLUS some of us had to do lunchroom duty. We still taught 3-4 ALP groups per day, and went to serve in 3-4 upper level classrooms per day, too! AND had a planning period on Fridays.
36. The fact that in the spirit of "doing it like everyone else" we have been FORCED to have team teaching 3rd grade and above -- the 5th grade schedule is grueling and STUPID. And, turns out -- not everyone else is doing it that way AFTER ALL -- STOP TRYING TO MICROMANAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!
37. Lack of recognition for teachers and staff by the district and/or campus.
38. Why are the TAKS scores Recognized-level (or close) at the grades below high school and then the kids get up to high school and they are failing? (it seems like our hard work and building-blocks go down the toilet when they get up there)
39. Sidewalks in front of the head shed and by the gym flood to the point of impassability nearly every time it rains.
40. Having to go "the long way" through the 2-3 bldg to get from the gym to the K-1 building if it is raining because of the aforementioned flooded sidewalks and the lack of awnings -- understandable that you don't want to block the front of the Granite bldg for historical reasons, but what about that sidewalk BESIDE the granite bldg to the front door of the school.
(BTW I would thank them for the awning that they DID build in front of the office)
Good God! I've been typing for over an hour! Whew! This has been really therapeutic!
