I asked my principal for a few minutes to talk about another member of my department who is doing an absolutely poor job of teaching. He's been bad the entire time that I've known him, and he doesn't really seem to want to improve. I'm trying to get the principal to do something about it...start a process for getting this guy out of our school (hopefully the profession) for good. No luck so far. I went into school over the summer to talk with him about it...he said that he would keep an eye on him, but I haven't seen that yet.
So I begin my conversation which goes something like this:
- I told him that the teacher spent the first week of school doing "who knows what" while the rest of us worked on cleaning, planning, etc. The first day of school comes, and the teacher doesn't have a syllabus for his class. He goes across the room to get one from another teacher to copy. Except it isn't the same class...it is an honors level course. That doesn't bother him...he uses it anyway.
- First test day - the teacher goes to ask another teacher for his test at the beginning of the period. So the kids are in the room when the teacher goes down to the copy room to make copies.
- I have had two kids, one of which I had last year and one of which that I do not know come to me and ask me to get them out of his class. Our school has a policy that kids cannot change classes to get a new teacher (because many kids would claim that they couldn't get along with their teacher just to be put in classes with their friends) but I ended up moving them in the end.
- The teacher does not stay after school to help students. He goes to his other job. It is school-related, but I know that the coaches in our department don't begin practice right after school so that they can help students that stay after or let kids make up exams in their rooms. There is no reason that this teacher can't do the same.
- I went into the teacher's room once while my student teacher was in my room teaching and it was apparent that the students had no idea what they were doing. There was a substitute in there that wasn't a math teacher so I helped them out. The kids thanked me and told me that the teacher usually just gives them a "just read the book". This is a low-level class (my senior credit factory class from last year) - they won't ever be able to just read the book and be able to do it. It was my worksheet from the previous year anyway - I have my doubts that the teacher can do it.
So after all of this, the principal says that he understands but he doesn't get many complaints. I wanted to say that was because he generally teaches kids that are very low in academic skills - many are ELL students - and the parents don't complain because they don't know that they can, but he continued...
Walking out the door, we can see the classroom across the hall (another teacher) through my classroom door's windows. He says, "See? When I look into Mr. ****'s class I can see that the kids are engaged. You can tell that Mr. **** is at the board, and except for a kid or two a little off, there is something educational going on in there". I tell him, "Yeah, I know, but that isn't what you are going to see next door."
So we open the door and look next door where the poor teacher is. The first thought that came to my head was to scream F@#%*#$ because the kids were engaged. There they all were with their compasses and straight edges working on constructions. I really couldn't believe it. The principal says "They seem to be on task today." I was dumbstruck. I walked about four steps and stopped. Something was seriously wrong. The teacher was not at his desk, not on the phone, and the kids were working... maybe even thinking! I walked backward for steps and peeked into the room. Luckily the principal followed me. A substitute was there! Woo hoo! I can't describe the amount of relief that I felt at that moment.
The school nurse, whose office is nearby came walking down the hallway and I asked her to look in and asked her, "What is different?" She said, "The kids are working?". Now if I can just get a few more people to convince the principal that the effort needed to get rid of this guy is worth it.
During lunch, while telling other members of the department about the whole episode, I referred to the substitute teacher as "Mary Poppins". If she could get a group of kids to work that haven't done hardly anything all year long with their teacher, she certainly should be picked up as a classroom teacher really soon.
8 comments:
I agree with you that it sounds like this guy needs to straighten up or get fired. Unfortunately, it sounds like your principal is typical in that he doesn't even want to investigate to see if something needs to happen. Parents complain about how teachers can't be fired, but they can it's just a long process that most administrators don't want to go through.
The only thing I would disagree with you is the part about the teacher not staying after school to help students. I don't stay after school either. I think it can backfire on you. I do meet with students if I see them struggling and trying, then I will set up a morning time...to see if they really want the help.
If you are making it your mission to get this teacher fired I strongly disagree with your methods. An ethnical person would go to this person with their concerns and offer to mentor this teacher before going to the principal. You sound like your on a witch hunt. If you really care about teaching and children you would work with this teacher first before you tried to hang him.
You could also go to the teachers union and ask them to help out. Let me know how that works for you.
IBMT, it seems like you want this both ways. You don't want the principal to have the authority to fire a teacher for reasons you don't like (the school can't afford union pay scales) but you do want the principal to have the authority to fire a teacher for reasons you do like (a slug of a teacher protected by a union contract).
Either the principal runs the school (private and public charter school model) or the union runs the school (regular public schools). Take your pick.
Mr. Wendland:
This teacher has had a mentor and I have talked to him about his mismanagement of the classroom. I've talked to him about his electronic gradebook, which he had royally screwed up. I've talked with him regarding not being able to provide kids with extra help. This was all done last year. Two years ago he taught in another part of the building and we requested that he be moved up by us so that he would have more support. But the support he had hasn't worked in eight years, and we know now that he is "coasting" and doesn't feel the need to improve his craft despite knowing full well that his kids score poorly on the tests that he gives them.
And I don't want to be the one to mentor this man. I am mentoring someone this year who is new to high school. It is a lot easier to do when you respect someone because of their math ability and their work ethic. The guy next door has little of the former and none of the latter.
The administration has the ability to do whatever they want to do with regard to providing a mentor or take action to get rid of the man. The union has the responsibility to look at the situation and act accordingly. It shouldn't be mine. I've enough to do.
I think it is time for experience teachers to speak out and uphold the standards of our teaching profession. I too had a problem with a colleague who was clearly incompetent. The administration can't do anything if they don't know there is a problem. You say you tried different solutions to the problem (I've been there!) so the next logical step was to report it to the administration. I think we would be negligent if we didnt' do so and we owe it to the students to give them a quality education. Maybe there is a valid reason for what is going on and that is up to the administration to find out not colleagues.
This is clearly not your job. If you want to go into administration, do.
Meanwhile... sigh...
Good luck! Keep us posted.
How do other teachers feel about you speaking up against this teacher?
The rest of the department is all for it... well, there are a couple that I haven't spoken to directly about it, but I'm sure they feel the same way. We also have two great teachers in the department with less seniority than him, so if a teacher that is currently on leave comes back, we'd lose a good one. That sucks for the kids and for me!
Post a Comment