I admit, I am glad the week is over. I have had a long week that should not have been as stressful as it was. The problem wasn't even the students I have to deal with. These issues were all educated people created.
As an educator you are expected to follow certain ethical codes. Not just your basic no lying, cheating, or sleeping with student ethics (those should be the easier ones to abide by truthfully.) There are those other things such as keeping your mouth shut about students. Not be derogatory no matter how awful your experience may have been with said student. Another is to be fair. Yes, in the education of children it is expected that each child is treated fair and as equal as possible. I say as possible because there are those special cases in which students with challenges have modifications and accommodations given to them that are not given to the child with a 130+ IQ.
My challenge this week has been to deal with teachers of lower ethical standards in the way the address students. I believe I mentioned earlier about my instant class load. I was given 6 classes. They are now my responsibility. The previous teacher has no further responsibility for the child's grades as of the day they were officially put on my roll. So, my question, why is it that 4 days after they became I my classes were failing grades put into the system and these students give progress reports with my name listed next to these grades that I did not generate? The first answer I got was "Things happen. Must have been a computer glitch."
To further my problem, why is it that the man who has been found to have done it, one of the prior teachers, and now a part-time administrator, found it necessary to comment that the students he gave failing grades to were worthless anyhow. He has never given me the students prior grades. The only reason I have any of them is due to the fact that the student teacher I now have was with him and he had access to the grades and copied them before the transfers took place.
How is it that a person who has this view of our student, of any student, has been given the position of leader, in ANY capacity!? I realize we have our challenging students. However challenging they may be he has the ethical responsibility to act as a leader in education and keep his personal opinion to himself and keep his big mouth shut! He is in a leadership role then breaks not only ethical rules but possible laws by entering grades that were attached to my name. Grades I am accountable for.
So what do I do? Its an interesting question. I know I need to cover my own ass.
Problem two this week started out not as a problem.... but ended up that way.
I was finally given a day to plan. I was told my classes would be covered, that there would be a sub. Well, I got some planning done, then I found out that some of my classes were missing subs. I hadn't been given a sub as previously mentioned, but in fact my classes were assigned different subs for each period. They were pulling subs from teachers during the off periods to cover my class. Wouldn't be a problem if they were making sure the classes were being covered. I have classes that weren't covered. I had classes sitting there without supervision.
When asked what happened my student teacher was told, "Things happen."
Oh yeah, things happen - things happen in a classroom of freshmen with no adult supervision. Things happen that can cause physical harm in a class that contains known gang members without adult supervision.
Things happen alright!
Oh and to top it all off - my two books for class seem to have grown legs and walked off. I slightly need them to prepare my lectures. I have checked at home, where I thought I left them, and have looked in my classroom. I need to find a nice way to ask my student teacher if he has them. If I can't find them soon I will have to go buy new ones.
But hey... Things happen!
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