Live.Awake

Lessons Learned as a 9th Grade English Teacher, Part 1

// April 12th, 2007 // Humor

Part 1 | Part 2

Like most college Freshmen, when I went to college I had no idea what I wanted to do when I grew up. I floundered around a bit, and finally decided that I enjoyed my English classes the most. I loved writing and literature. When you are an English major you really have only two career paths to take: become a writer or become an educator. I wasn’t dedicated enough to be a writer and I wasn’t willing to spend many years of my life waiting tables hoping to get published. That left me with the educator route. I have some natural ability with verbal communication so I decided to become a High School English teacher. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

WHAT WAS I THINKING!?

I graduated in 1999 and got a job in a school system in North Carolina. The High School where I would be teaching was not in a particularly poor district, nor was it a small school.

My first weeks teaching were great. It was everything I expected it to be. You see, when you are being trained to teach most of your professors fill you with all kinds of romantic tripe about how great teaching is. They tell you that you are going to “make a difference” and that “teaching is a higher calling” and that your students will be “like children of your own”. What they don’t tell you is that often it turns out nothing like that.

I had an appointment with the Assistant Principal. We’ll call her Mrs. Remington (despite how she treated me, I really have forgiven her and feel no need to slander her on the internet). At the time of the appointment, I went to her office. She was in a meeting with some parents at the time and she told me that she would call me to reschedule. I went back to my classroom to grade papers. She never called.

The next day I was sitting in my classroom after school talking to another teacher when Mrs. Remington came by my classroom and stood in my door. She said, “So you decided to just skip our appointment?” I completely misjudged her facial expression and tone of voice. I thought she was joking sarcastically. That made sense to me because she had never called me back to reschedule. I replied in kind, saying, “Yeah, I just thought I’d skip it this time.” And laughed.

She didn’t laugh. She took about 5 steps into the room (still with my fellow teacher sitting there) and began berating me over not respecting her or my job as a teacher. She told me that my behavior was completely unacceptable and that it had better not continue. I was shocked! I tried to explain to her that I misunderstood her and thought she was joking because I was expecting her to call and reschedule. She didn’t buy it at all. She just said,

Come to my office tomorrow after school and I want your teaching plan for the semester and your grade book. Do NOT be late.

The meeting the next afternoon was like nothing I had ever experienced (or since). She insisted on meeting in the big conference room and asked me to sit at the end of the long table while she sat at the other end. As if to say, “I’m in charge and I’m about to skewer you.” I sat down, gave her my plan. She looked it over briefly, and then started in on me.

It was a long speech, but here are a few things I recall her saying to me:

You don’t care about your students or your job.

You are a poor example to other teachers.

You don’t care about doing a good job.

I (Mrs. Remington) am going to see to it that you do not make it in this school. If I could have you fired right now, I would do it.

By the time she was done, she was yelling and standing over the table. I tried explaining myself in a calm voice to no avail. All that did was make her more angry.

I’m not making this stuff up! I know now that I should have stood up right then and walked across the hall to the Principal’s office and confronted the situation. But this was my first professional job and I was completely floored.

I know what you’re thinking. “Yeah, yeah. There’s more to this you aren’t telling. You must have done something else.”

All I can say is, if you knew me you would know that none of those accusations are true of me. I’m just not that way. I have a strong work ethic and believe deeply in respecting authority. Honestly I’m still baffled over how she came to the conclusions that she did.

What happened over the coming months made this incident look like a tea party.

Part 1 | Part 2

[tags]teaching, education, new teacher, secondary, ed, high school, school system, 9th grade, English, Grammar, Literature, Educator[/tags]