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12 thoughts on “No Longer Exists”
I just submitted my resignation letter about an hour ago (my contract is not going to be renewed). Had I read this before, I might have submitted this one. I had been pretty mystified to exactly why I was getting canned, but now after reading Gerald Conti’s resignation letter, it’s painfully clear. The first year our principal began here and implemented a lot of changes that I didn’t necessarily go along with, our school had the highest gains in the district on the state assessment.
Michael, if you don’t mind me asking, how long have you been teaching at your school? How long has that principal been there?
We both started the same time- 2 years ago.
The principal has no interest in you as a teacher because you can’t help him. He is not supporting you in your study of doing things in a new way because, without any doubt, someone in your department who is oppositional to new ideas has gotten into his head about you.
Most importantly for you to keep in mind is that this person is definitely moving up. For that to happen, he needs teachers who will bring the scores. The part you bring is not seen by him. He doesn’t know you. He doesn’t care to support your professional growth. In that sense, he isn’t doing his job of exploring all options that would benefit the kids.
Good riddance. If this principal is on a five year plan for advancement to the district level, you would be very unhappy there for the next three years anyway. It would be too hard to wait him out that long. He gets to win, but only on the surface. You have taken a blow, and you are not the first in this group to take a hit like that this year. Go read the recent post entitled “Teacher of the Month”:
https://benslavic.com/blog/2013/04/07/teacher-of-the-month-april-2013/
Spanish? Come to DPS, where we also are powerless against the corporate push towards supporting teachers who bring the data, but where we train and coach each other in CI with great intensity and where we at least have each other in World Languages under the dynamic and purposeful leadership of a close friend of Stephen Krashen. (Diana Noonan makes him wash her dishes when he is in Denver.)
You will prevail on this Michael. Go read what this month’s PLC Teacher of the Month, Angie Dodd, is doing to be proactive and kick away the illusion that she can’t teach languages that was foisted on her shoulders by an obsolete system very much resembling the one you are leaving, an illusion that she actually bought into for awhile but not any more. Go read about Angie.
Buckle up. Your ride in a classroom is not over. Or you wouldn’t be in this group.
Related: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb6ErLPt4t8
Thanks Ben. Thanks especially for the Jeffersons video. Reminds me of my college XC days. Coach used to say all the time, in his gruff, General Patton like voice, “We’re like the Jeffersons, always moving on up!”
I can’t too angry about the situation. This is the second time my contract wasn’t renewed. The first time, I was a second year teacher and I mostly taught grammar. My department was adamantly against TPRS and without even knowing what it really was, so was I. I didn’t know any better. I was following what my department head/mentor teacher said, and I had no reason not to trust him. Monkey see, monkey do. Getting canned the first time was the best thing that ever happened to me. That’s when I started getting into TPRS and comprehensible input. I have to trust in the hope that this seemingly negative experience will turn out the same. One step closer to where I want to be.
Good riddance for me. Bad riddance for my students. They will probably get a new teacher that will teach them to start hating Spanish again.
BTW, I’d love to come down to DPS. One of the first things I though after finding out about getting canned was, “Too bad I just bought a house or I’d be applying in DPS so I can hang out with Ben.”
What’s your best 5K?
I wasn’t really a 5k guy, but my best 5k came during the second half of a 10k on the track: 14:40.
o.k. that’s movin’. No. That’s really movin’. No. Any runners gettin’ that?
OH WOWIE! “not a 5k guy but i close a 10,poo with a 14:40?” that is a deluxe can of whoop ass 🙂
Yeah I apologize for the tangient, it’s my job as moderator to keep us on task, but that 14:40 5K second split in a 10K is just mind boggling. I think we have another Micheal (Nagelkerke) in our group who is teaching up in the mountains of Colorado who also has those kinds of numbers. It’s a runner’s thing. Sorry about that. Yeah, jen, that’s the deluxe version, you are right!
I had a lot a amazingly fast teammates. I was by far not the fastest. When you surround yourself with the right people, success is contagious. That’s why I’m here in this PLC group. “14:40” CI teachers are a dime-a-dozen here, and Ben, you’re world class.