I am so frustrated by my school. I honestly don't know how the District hasn't imploded on itself and crumbled to pieces. The district and its schools are so poorly run. I've taught at 3 different schools in this district and I have never really felt supported by the administrators at any of them, and forget about the people at the district level. That's a whole different story.
We have this class called "Opportunity" class. It is for the kids who are such a problem that they can't function in a regular classroom (we're not talking about special education students. This is for students who do not have any learning difficulties or an IEP). These are the kids who take an entire class hostage with their poor behavior, or show no respect to the teacher, etc. Once other avenues have failed--counseling, detention, suspension, etc, a meeting is set up with the student's teachers, parents, counselor, and an administrator and it is discussed whether or not opportunity is the place for the student. There are only a handful of spots open in Opportunity as the Opportunity teacher cannot be expected to handle too many of this type of student at once, since the teacher is with those students the ENTIRE day.
I had a student in Opportunity all semester who just came back to me and has made absolutely no improvements. His first day back, he called another student a bitch because he was bullying her and she shoved his binder away from her because she was frustrated. He also says, "make me" when I give instructions and then gives what he thinks is a genuine I'm-just-kidding smile, but is really a genuine I'm-an-asshat smile. He has no remorse for anything that he does wrong. He has no respect for women. He waltzes in to class 15 minutes late and is super loud and disruptive when he comes in. As soon as I turn my back, he is throwing something at someone, taking something that doesn't belong to him, or out of his seat bothering another student. And my only choice is to give him detention (which he doesn't show up to). If I send him to the office, they send him back saying I haven't done enough of my own interventions.
At the last school I was at, Opportunity students had to earn back their regular classes gradually, and a meeting occurred with the teachers-of-record and the opportunity teacher to discuss whether or not the student was ready to come back (part of the deal is that the student needed to be turning in the work being sent to him/her in Opporunity). At my current school, we got an email from the AP (assistant principal) saying he was coming back. Both the art teacher and I emailed asking if there was going to be a meeting about it because he hadn't turned in ANY work in 15 weeks. We got no response. The first day back to school, there he was, gracing my door with his stupid jerk face.
I don't dislike kids. I like all my students. No matter how annoying they are to have in a big class that I have to manage, I still like all my students on a personal level. My students love me. I'm not saying this to brag. I'm saying it because it is true. I'm very easy to get along with. I treat them like people, not children (even though they are). I share students with other teachers who are just fine for me, but terrible for other teachers. It is really, really hard for me to dislike a kid. This kid is a bad seed. He does and says terrible things. I've not seen a single redeeming quality in him.
That is just one example of why my school sucks. Another? A colleague of mine had a student who, when given any kind of direction by herself or her instructional aide, would say, "Shut the fuck up, bitch." This occurred on an almost daily basis. This is not just disrespect. It is harassment. It took the administrators and entire semester before they took him out of her class and put him in Opportunity. He was never once suspended for this behavior. The admin is always telling us we never do enough. We're expected to hold our own detentions (because the school can't afford to pay someone to run detention), unpaid, beyond our contracted work hours. A kid has to be assigned 5 detentions before we are allowed to send him/her to the office. So, if you have a kid who is loud and obnoxious and you can't teach over them and you've assigned them detention, but they still won't shut up, you just have to put up with that student. And so do the rest of the students. Who aren't learning anything. Because said kid won't shut up.
My hand hurts from typing. It is all bruised from being run over by a skate at practice last night. I love teaching. I love teaching. I love teaching. /rant.
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