The 300 Days: Part 8 - Observations and Investigations

Previously: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

"Well I don't belong here

Don't fit your style

Felt your left foot,

Now feel my right..."

- Chevelle - The Meddler

The unique experience of a 2013-2014 educator was largely dictated by a series of new systems.  The first, and most well-known, was the implementation of the Common Core Standards as well as new learning standards for Science and Social Studies.  The most stressful and time consuming was that of the new Teacher Evaluation system.  Carefully concocted in the guarded kitchen of ODE, this new method of evaluating teachers took the old method and pan seared it, rolled it in cayenne pepper, stuffed it with habanero peppers, and shoved it up the rectum of the lifeless corpse of Guy Fieri, whose culinary prowess and E.T.-like body could not withstand flavors that far “out of bounds.”

In short, every teacher was to be observed twice per year (one each semester) by his/her superior.  Prior to the 45 minute observation, a 45 minute “pre-conference” was necessary, in order for the teacher to more or less outline the expectations of the lesson.  Then AFTER the 45 minute observation, another 45 minute “post-conference” was necessary in order for both teacher and supervisor to discuss the lessons, the pros and cons, and everything in between.  In order to fully prepare for these three “phases,” an electronic outline was filled out by the teacher, detailing things such as lesson goals, tools, class expectations, methods of differentiation, the whole works.  For many teachers, it took six hours to complete everything.  Needless to say it was exceptionally time consuming and nearly redundant:  can a principal truly tell how effective a teacher is in just a 45 minute snapshot?  Or, can a teacher truly fool a principal every year by creating lovely lessons full of “jazz hands” just to keep up on appearances?

For every evaluator (typically the principal and sometimes assistant principal), they must meet with each teacher two times a year a total of three entire class periods (one for pre-conference, one for observation, one for post conference).  By applying the lessons learned from algebra, this means that six class periods are devoted to each teacher.  Now, multiply six times the total amount of teachers that need to be observed and the days begin to add up.  Oh, and also the “observation” window is only like 2-3 months every semester.  Oh, and there are also snowdays in the winter, causing meetings to be rescheduled.  Oh, and there’s also that parent that’s still pissed about that one thing that happened.  Then there’s all the committees they’re on, the meetings before and after school, and it all adds up.  In short, there is unnecessary tension, stress, and time needed on both sides.

As always, Will was an ambitious learner, and set his first evaluation in late October, near the beginning of the “window” allowed by the state.  His intentions were to get as much feedback as possible, to throw himself to the wolves so that he could show ample growth.  He purposefully scheduled one of his “rougher” classes, near the end of the day.  Will knew it was pointless to schedule his best behaved class, as he would be only fooling himself.  What would be the point?  What would he learn?  Sure, stacking the deck in his favor would be advantageous.  But Will didn’t want to just have a good evaluation; he wanted to be a good teacher.

Will was always receptive to feedback, his undergraduate university supervisor calling him “the most coach-able educators I’ve ever worked with.”  So when Will completed his first observation, he was candid. “It didn’t go as well as I’d hoped,” Will spoke honestly as he outlined the things he saw and the things he would change.  Part of being a good educator was being self aware, knowing one’s limits.  The classroom can be quite unpredictable, so even if a lesson goes sour in some ways, a good teacher will be able to point out those things.  As Will sat and discussed the lesson with Mr. Evans, pros and cons were outlined.  Mr. Evans gave some things for Will to work on, even mentioning “I’d like to pop in before Christmas break, too.” Will thought nothing of it.

Second semester rolled around, and Will opted to get his 2nd evaluation completed early on the window once again.  There was one thing that Will despised, and that was the looming threat of a deadline.  The sooner he completed his observation, the better off he would be.

His approach to was quite simple:  continue building on the strengths and improve upon the weaknesses outlined from the first observation.  Once again, after hours of paperwork, Mr. Evans returned to Will’s classroom to observe a lesson on the Law of Superposition (geology).  It was fun, it was interactive, it was thought provoking and challenging.  Will knocked it out of the park.  

The next day, Will sat down in the guest chair of Mr. Evan’s small office, and they went through the evaluation rubric together, with Mr. Evans providing his grade for each domain, and what he saw from the lesson.  Mr. Evans even noted the aspects in which he wanted to see improvement, and indicated that Will had “swung into the next domain over.”  Will felt his confidence soar.  The meeting lasted approximately 40 minutes, and the first 35 went great.  The meeting then took an abrupt turn as Mr. Evans’ tone changed.  “I noticed you called on (Student 1) multiple times,” and “Student 2 finished a portion of the lab with minutes to spare, and she pulled out a book and was reading.  We can’t have that.”  With seconds to spare in the meeting, it was concluded with “I would like to do another observation.”

The alarms begin to sound inside Will’s brain, and he began to hallucinate little red flags flying at every turn.  The cause for concern was twofold:  1) Will had spent HOURS preparing the lesson - and a good lesson at that - only to have it shat upon in the closing moments of the meeting, and 2)  Mr. Evans was willing to sacrifice his own valuable time as a principal at a rather large middle school to meet with Will before, during, and after a lesson, on top of properly filling out all of the paperwork he was required to complete for the state.  In short:

The soft glow of his alarm clock illuminated half of Will’s bedroom, creating a blue shadow on everything.  12:04 the clock read.  Will had less than 6 hours before he would wake to begin his psychologically damaging drive to work.  Will’s brain ran on full steam as he pondered why Mr. Evans insisted on yet another observation.  So, Will sleuthed.

The next day, Will scoured whatever documents he could find:  board policies, Ohio Department of Education, and the Ohio Teacher Evaluation website, where he would find his answer.  There, in small print at the bottom of the observation template:  “Teachers subject to non-renewal may be observed a third time…”

Will felt a burst of warmth fill his face, as his heart began to pulse blood at a much higher rate.  Not wanting his heart and brain to explode, he immediately emailed Mr. Evans and asked if he could meet after school the following day.  He obliged.
The next day seemed to take forever.  Will felt powerless, and he opened up to Mrs. Handler:  “Have you ever heard about anything like this?  Should I be worried?  What can I do?”
Mrs. Handler seemed to kindly shrug, dejected that she could not help “I don’t know, Will.  But I think it’s good you’re going to ask him.  You deserve to know.”

The stampede of adolescents subsided, and Will waited anxiously outside Mr. Evan’s door.  A moment later, the door opened, and Mr. Evans kindly asked him to come in.  Will closed the door.
“So what’s up?” Mr. Evans politely asked.
“Well, to make a long story short:  I know that you want to observe me a third time, and I was reading up on the Teacher Evaluation System, and saw a little blurb about ‘teachers being subject to non-renewal may be observed a third time.’  Like, is this something I need to be concerned about?  I love teaching here, but quite honestly, my confidence is a little shook up at the moment.”

It took Mr. Evans about 3 seconds to respond, but Will had his answer in less than that.

In a split second, Mr. Evans looked down, and grimaced, through clenched teeth began “well….”  It was precisely that moment that Will knew that he was no longer welcome at that school and in the district.

The 300 Days: Part 7 - The Second Meeting and the Steel Blues

Previously: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

"Then I got a taste of the benefits, five foot and change

There's no better way to hash it out

So let's set up your time to fail

Well, cause now the cracks, should we intervene?

I hold this albatross..."

- Chevelle - "Face to the Floor"

It was like a scene straight out of Groundhog Day, except it wasn't funny.  

On two more occasions, Mrs. Chapman informed Will that Miss Marley had again walked into her classroom and gone on some sort of adolescent tirade about the most trivial things.  For the most part, Mrs. Chapman ignored her, or would continue working at her desk as Miss Marley unleashed a plethora of obscenities.  When Miss Marley would finally come up for air, Mrs. Chapman would calmly ask “have you told him any of this yet?”  Once more, Miss Marley would rant about Will “not listening to any advice” and “only doing what he wants to do.”  

While Will wanted nothing to do with this woman due to her exceptional ability to question his professionalism and dedication, he realized that as much as he did not care for her tactics, he still had to maintain a working relationship with her.  He emailed her, requesting that they could meet in order to "get on the same page." It would be the last time they would meet one on one. It was agreed that they would meet in Miss Marley's room the next day, before school began. Once again, as history is the greatest of indicators, no progress was made...

Miss Marley walked into her own classroom late. Will was sitting atop a student desk, pondering over what he would say and how he would say it.
"What's up?" Miss Marley said somewhat cheerfully, clearly oblivious to actions.
"Well, I wanted to get on the same page with you in regards to our expectations. I was talking to Mrs. Chapman, and apparently you were complaining to her about me..."

When Will brought up her exceptional ability of slandering his name to other teachers, she would got extremely defensive.  And why wouldn’t she?  She had been caught being undeniably unprofessional, speaking negatively and even cursing about a fellow teacher with a fellow staff member.  Rather than talk about what they were going to do, instead, Miss Marley wanted to make excuses.

“...just, in the future, if there is an issue, come to me first”  Will calmly requested.

“I try!  But every time I come by your room, you are gone!”

“Ok.  If that is the case, you can email me.”

“This isn’t something to talk about through email, Will.”

“Ok.  So then email me to set up a meeting like I just did.  I just don’t see the reason to involve Mrs. Chapman in all of this.  She has enough on her plate as it is, and it really isn’t her job…”

“Yes, yes, it is her job, Will,” Miss Marley interjected.

Miss Marley continued her complaints and excuses, but Will could not make eye contact with her.  He refused to acknowledge her existence as a human-being. All respect had been lost.  For the remainder of Miss Marley’s sermon, Will peered out into the hallway, counting the seconds until she was finished, offering only a simple “yep” or “okay” between her statements.

As usual, Will and Miss Marley tolerated each-other for only a few weeks until the pot was once again stirred.  This time, Mr. Evans would intervene, orchestrating a meeting as referee between the two.  Again, Will was relieved as he could address the issues surrounding their professional partnership like adults.

The meeting began, and immediately Will could feel his brow furrow as he listened to her complaints once more.  This time, however, he stared right at her.  He didn’t just make eye contact.  He stared into Miss Marley’s soul.  He hoped that he would perhaps incinerate her, breaking the spell of her reign of terror.  However, as Will unblinkingly squared up to this unprofessional cohort, it was quite clear that she did not have the necessary equipment, her body vacant of conscience.  The room maintained its cool 75 degrees.  

Mrs. Handler had once told him how Mr. Evan’s had raved about his piercing blue eyes after he had left his interview.  Now, months later, Will’s steel blues had failed him, unable to set another human aflame.

Miss Marley concluded her diatribe, pertaining to issues relating, but not limited, to:

• the lack of quality in his lessons
• how she did not feel welcome in his classroom (despite being 5-10 minutes late every day)
• the lack of time given to modify her lessons.

That word again:  “modify.” Will had expected someone of her experience and expertise to know the difference between “accommodate” and “modify.”  These two terms are very prominent in the world of Special Education, and often they are mistakenly used synonymously, like in this case.  However, there is a clear distinction between the two:  to accommodate merely means a teacher will change how they teach, whereas to modify means to change what they teach.  Will had read through his students’ IEPs (Individualized Education Plan) many times, and there was no mention of any sort of modifications.  Typically, modifications were reserved only for the most extreme cases, such as a non-verbal student or a student with an exceptionally low reading level.  These were also students who were not subject to the typical standardized testing as other 8th graders.  Seeing as all of Will’s students were to take all of the Ohio Assessments, his logic was pretty solid:  help students master their learning targets, while preparing them for the state assessments (as they would be a means of evaluating his effectiveness as a teacher).

When it was Will’s turn, he was quite blunt in his analysis of the situation:

“To be perfectly honest, I do not feel respected one bit.  I have no trust.  I have heard complaints and tirades on three separate occasions from other staff members, and each time I organized a meeting with you.  Quite frankly, I’m sorry that you feel unwelcome and “unequal” in my class, but perhaps if you greeted the students at the door as I do every day, they would view you as an “equal.”  I don’t think it’s my job to go out of my way to make sure that the students see you as they see me.  You have to be there.

Secondly, I have never heard you give me any positive feedback.  This past week, you had two substitutes in for you.  Before they left my class, both of them thanked me for letting them come in and work with the kids, and said how much they loved the lesson and how I worked with the kids.”

Being in front of the principal, Miss Marley surely knew she could not be her usual brash self, and apologized for her lack of positivity. She once again mentioned “not having enough time,” to which Will interjected, “Ok.  How much time do you need?  I've sent you my plans the weekend prior.  Tell me when I should send them.”

A rough translation.

Miss Marley paused, and simply said “well if you do a lab or something on Monday, get it to me by Thursday night or Friday morning.”

“Thursday night or Friday morning…” Will said aloud as he scribbled in his notebook, not only for his well being, but to repeat for all to hear, to ensure there was no confusion this time what the expectations were.  The meeting was adjourned, as the three exchanged professional pleasantries as they departed.  Will felt like a newly planted tree, thrashing amidst a powerful storm, holding on for dear life, praying that the next gust wouldn’t cause him to become uprooted…

The 300 Days: Part 6 - The Rants and The Excuses

Previously: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

"Nobody wants their problems solved. Their dramas. Their distractions. Their stories resolved. Their messed cleaned up. Because what would they have left? Just the big scary unknown."

- Chuck Palahniuk

Times Three.

Few individuals in this life would volunteer for a straight punch to the solar plexus, let alone three of them.  The likes of Johnny Knoxville could be considered, only to pull a no-show due to zero compensation.  This was exactly what Will was signing up for, only in a psychological means.

One by one, Will met with his cohorts to discuss what they apparently were afraid of telling him.  Despite knowing what he would be told, Will still felt his confidence deplete slowly.  In each of the meetings, Will was adamant in telling each of them “I cannot know your frustrations and your views on my work if you don’t communicate with me.  Give me feedback.”  For his entire life, Will was a willing learner.  That was not about to change.

In the coming weeks, Will’s rebuilding of relationships would be a slow arduous process.  Trust is a very curious thing:  it isn’t a bone or a ligament that can be simply repaired.  There must be a certain degree of mutualism.  Needless to say, some were repaired and some remained irrevocably destroyed.

The year progressed, fall became winter, and the cautious optimism of Will’s psyche was replaced with anxiety.  Every morning commute, Will could feel the pit in his stomach grow larger as his proximity from school increased.  The same sensation could be created every time Will pressed “Enter” to log into his school email, afraid of getting another condescending email from a colleague.  While it was only November, Will almost felt like the year was already gone, already a failure…

Mrs. Chapman was the first to truly come around.  One December afternoon, she came into his classroom asking if he would want to help her in creating a geology lab.  Will naturally obliged, seeing this to be a professional olive branch.  At one point, Mrs. Chapman vented to him about “so much drama and self-centeredness...we are supposed to be here for the kids!”  From then on, the lines of communication between them were wide open.  She became Will’s closest confident…

...despite the meeting Will had with Miss Marley, and outlining their expectations for one another, her gripping did not cease.  Despite Will adamantly requesting to her “please...if there is an issue, come to me,” she did not.

A typical Sunday, Will was cleaning his fancy domicile when (as usual) he received a snarky email from Miss Marley, littered with the usual complaints: “I don’t have enough time to modify...how am I supposed to make this work for my kids?!”

The lesson she was creating a rampage about was more or less a web-quest, in which the students navigated through a website full of informational text, animations, and interactives.  It was beneficial to all sorts of learners.  The worksheet that complimented the website was very open ended:  the students could gain information from the text or through the interactives.  Still, this did not prevent Miss Marley from raising all kinds of hell, causing even the likes of Veruca Salt to blush, exceeding her childish demands of acquiring a golden goose egg.

Will, having the peacemaking personality, decided that he would make some suggestions for her.  So he turned to his beautiful, blonde Intervention Specialist fiance and asked, “how could we alter this to help her group?”  After briefly discussing the type of accommodations her kids received, Beautiful Fiance suggested “if it isn’t too big of a group, she could pull the kids and read them the text and kind of guide them through it.”

There was one major reason he was going to marry that woman:  her nice, big, voluptuous, sexy brain.

Moments later, a symphony of clicks sounded upon the walls of his 1-bedroom apartment, as he kindly typed up his reply to Miss Marley.  In short, he suggested that “perhaps if there is a means to get a projector or even a few laptops, you could pull the kids into a small group?  That way, you can guide their way through the text if it’s a bit too difficult.”  The “Send” button was clicked, and Will immediately showered his fiance with positive words of affirmation.  “You are as smart as your are beautiful,” Will exclaimed lovingly,  “you are the apple of my eye, my muse, and my flame.”

“Oh William, you are the man of my dreams.  I shan’t look at another man again.  My heart beats for you, and you alone!”  With that, they embraced and shared a firm handshake, being quite aware of their physical contact, as they were not yet married.

After Will fulfilled his duty as a cattle-driver (morning hall duty), he crossed paths with Mrs. Chapman, who gave him a look of both humor and annoyance.  “Will, what did you do?”  she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I was working on my homework last night, and I got a voicemail from Miss Marley, just cussing up a storm: ‘F this, F that!  He’s making me do this lesson, and he’s forcing me to do it his way!’”

“What?”

“She was going off about being disrespected as a teacher because you told the class ‘when you reach the lesson checkpoints, raise your hand, and I’ll initial it’ and she took that as her not being allowed to.  And that you said she can’t change the lessons because ‘we do what I want them to do.’”

“You’re kidding me.  Ok.  I’m sorry I teach five other classes and I slipped.  She should know better.  And the rest of that is absolute bullshit.  I suggested to her ways that she could modify the assignment for her kids.  She made no other suggestions.  I have never told her no.”

“It was pretty bad…”

“That is ridiculous.  You shouldn’t be dealing with that.  Did you tell her to come to me?”

“Yep.  And all she said was “he doesn’t listen! We always do what he wants to do!”

Will could not believe it.  How could someone who was in education for that long, a professional, be so...well, damn unprofessional?  Not only that, but he had explicitly asked Miss Marley that if there were ANY issues, to come to him first.  She seemed to only communicate when reached out to, sometimes not even replying when that was the case. As a kind gesture prior to Christmas break, Will had made his team some lovely, holiday-scented candles.  When he presented them to his team, they were grateful and seemed almost embarrassed, with Mrs. Chapman remarking “you didn’t have to do this...I didn’t get you anything!”  Miss Marley was not there, so he navigated his way to her classroom.

Miss Marley’s room looked like a third world country.  Her desk covered with papers and books.  She had animal cages and containers, illuminated only by the gentle glow of a halogen light.  Will feared how many lives were taken inside these walls.  He wanted to take a deep breath to calm his fears, but the risk of inhaling asbestos, 2 inches of dust, and dog hair was far too vast to slake his need for oxygen.

Will then placed the candle atop a book about reptiles, next to what he assumed was the latest issue of “Thick Denim Weekly.”  Later that day, he sent her an email to make sure that she indeed knew the gift was for her.  “Hey Miss Marley!  I left you a little gift on your desk.  Hope you enjoy it!  Have a great Holiday break!”  Will was bound and determined to give her diabetes.

Not one word.  Not one reply.  Not even a “the candle smelled like shit.”  Nothing....

wtf?

Seventh period arrived and, as usual, Miss Marley was late.  As Will began instructing the class about the web-quest, Miss Marley merely opened the door, pointed to her students to acknowledge to them “come with me,” and left the room without so much a word to Will.

About 90 minutes later, Miss Marley finally reached out to Will in her typical, ranting style.  At least she was making progress.  She finally came to Will first.  As she stormed into his room, she slammed down the webquest worksheet on the front table and exclaimed “this did not work.  If I were you, I would throw these out because they did not understand any of it.  You have to give me more time to modify this!”

“I sent that to you Friday afternoon, “ Will replied.

“Well, I didn’t have time to look at it until late last night...I was busy all weekend.”

“Well, what about my suggestions?”

“I had to kick out Mrs. 8th Grade Teacher from her classroom during her prep time so I could use her projector!”

“I didn’t ask you to do that...were there any projectors available to sign out from the media center?  You could have taken one of those and used that spare room at the end of the hall”

“I didn’t have enough time this morning!  And that room is too small,” Miss Marley complained about her having to try and cram five whole students into an open classroom.

“You could have asked me to sign out a projector; I would have done it,” Will calmly replied, now fixating his eyes on his computer screen.  He saw this conversation was going nowhere.

“Will, I didn’t have time…” Miss Marley uttered yet again.

“Well, I don’t know what you want me to do.  I sent you the lesson plan with days to spare, I made suggestions for you.  I don’t know what else I can do.”  Will’s eyes were still fixated on his screen, communicating to Miss Marley that while he was listening, he wasn’t going to throw down on an argument.  Will had seen this method dozens of times, only instead of two adults, it was typically a parent and a toddler.  Surprisingly, Miss Marley seemed to listen to what he said, as she did not react. She simply left....

The 300 Days: Part 5 - The Emails and The Daggers

Previously: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

“I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it." 

- Voltaire

Apart of the sound of Chris Berman’s power grumbling from his TV, Will was focused on his tedious task at hand.  For weeks, he had been taking the time to type up his lesson plans in an effort to “include” Miss McDonald in his classroom activities.  However, each week seemed to be worse than the last.

When they had broken off in that mid-October “intervention,” Will had agreed that he would send her his lesson plans for the coming week.  But he would soon learn that even that was not good enough.  On several occasions, he received snippy replies back late Sunday evening in which she would go off on some train-of-thought sermon.  At first, it began as a bombardment of questions:  “how long will this take?  Are you going to modify this for my students?  Is this an appropriate reading level?”  Eventually, her replies morphed into full-blown criticisms.  

Will was fine with sharing his lesson plans, but it did not seem that Miss Marley was even going to use them.  Instead, she simply read through his agenda, and would reply back in her typical supercilious tone.  She didn’t want Will’s lesson plans; she wanted Will to change his lesson plans for her.  She wanted him to be a different teacher.

One reply went as follows:  “I don’t have enough time to modify...you aren’t giving me enough time.”  Will typically emailed his lessons Sunday morning, but Miss Marley clearly did not check her email until late Sunday night, which was understandable.  She was busy or out of town that weekend.  She had very important events to tend to, like wash her mom jeans or clean out the giant dog cage in her car.  Will, on the other hand, was not allowed to have any sort of life outside of school.  Just shut up and do your duty, little shit.

One Sunday, much like any other, Miss Marley had had enough.  Will checked his email at about 10:00 that evening, to find that she had replied to the email he had sent around noon earlier that day.  As Will read through the two paragraphs, he could feel himself becoming tensing with each word his eyes fixated on.  “I don’t have enough time to modify this” she griped, “I don’t have enough time.  I was out of town this weekend, so I’ve only just gotten this.”  Will re-read the email to see if there was any part in which her weekend plans were his problem.  There was not.

The email was kept open, and in a new tab, Will began researching ulcers and treatments, as he became concerned with his well-being.  About 20 minutes later, he received an alert that he had an email, this time from his principal, Mr. Evans.  The email was short, merely inquiring him if he was available to meet the following day.  Will knew immediately it was because of Miss Marley. There was nothing to fear; he had done nothing wrong.  If anything, he was relieved that he could explain his perspective and frustrations.  A peaceful resolution was in sight.  Will knew Mr. Evans to be a level-headed, understanding person.  This was the tip of the iceberg.

The following day, Will took a list of “grievances” to bring to his after-school meeting to better organize his thoughts;  no stone would be unturned.  It was not so much a list of complaints, but instead a miniature “screenplay” of things that were said and done over the past month. Despite Will’s thoroughness, he would not need it.

“There have been some concerns that were brought to my attention...” Mr. Evans began.  Will’s mind immediately swelled with the demands and excuses from Miss Marley as he prepared his disposition.  He shifted forward in his chair, ready to engage.

“Your team has become a little upset that you aren’t bringing enough to the table.”  Will’s mind immediately went blank.  His brow furrowed as he attempted to comprehend what he had just heard.

Mr. Evans’ statement slowly sunk in, as did three small daggers, one for each of his cohorts, plunging into his back.  Will had been prepared to defend himself on one front, but this whole time he did not realize that there was more than one army.  Miss Marley had sold him out.  She had gathered reinforcements.  Will had shown up to gunfight with a pillow.

Mr. Evans continued, informing Will that he had talked with the other members of his team (likely at Miss Marley’s insistence), and they had confided that he did not plan good lessons, did not share his common assessment data efficiently, and on a few occasions, did not share his lesson plans or lab experiments with his team.

Will’s anger then became shame and guilt.  He was a leech.  A spectator; ashamed for utilizing their resources.  In his experience, he had been taken underwing of a few great teachers, all whom offered him advice for lessons, or even gave him all resources that they had used in years past, some neatly organized into a 3-ring binder, some lazily thrown into a cardboard box.  The only expectations they had for him were to “use whatever you want, and change whatever you want!  Why reinvent the wheel?”  He had been received with kindness.  At every step in his career, Will returned the favor before he departed, leaving resources behind as a respectable predecessor.

Will’s trust had been betrayed.  As he made his way back to his classroom, he started to piece together some conclusions.  For one, it made sense as to what Miss Marley was doing when she would take his student handouts and worksheets and leave the room.  She wasn’t making copies; she was bringing them upstairs to the rest of the team to show them “this is what he is doing; he didn’t share it with you!”  

Secondly, Will finally understood why his emails and requests to the team went unanswered:  they were blackballing him.  For weeks, even months, Will had tried to be proactive, asking him team “what topic/concept do we have coming up next so I can look into it?”  After all, this was a new curriculum for everyone, so he wanted to make sure that he had ample time to research the concept, find/create some resources, and report back to the group before they intended to teach.

Will wanted answers, and he wanted them immediately.  If they did not have the courage to tell him his shortcomings to his face, then they would be demanded.  Before Will left for the gym, in which he would have a workout of a lifetime, he contacted the entire team, including Miss Marley and Mrs. Chapman whom he had previously met with.  He was professional in his request that he’d meet with each one individually so they could discuss his role.

The 300 Days: Part 4 - The Amish Garage Sale and The First Meeting

Previously: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3

"I did not know then that this is what life is - just when you master the geometry of one world, it slips away, and suddenly again, you're swarmed by strange shapes and impossible angles." 

- Ta-Nehisi Coates

“Hey, I’ll be right back.  I’ve got to run out to my car real quick,” Will said as he walked into Mrs. Chapman’s room during one of his short parent/teacher conference breaks.  He set down his agenda and a notebook that he would use for any sort of advice or ideas that Miss Marley, Mrs. Chapman, or he could come up with.  He retained information better that way.

After a few laps around his somewhat crippled car, the insurance agent informed Will that an estimate would formalized in the next few days.  There was a mild sting coming from his left butt-cheek, where his wallet was usually found.  But again, nothing else could really be done.  The sooner the repairs could be made, the sooner Will felt he could get things “back on track.”

For a second time, Will entered Mrs. Chapman’s room, this time Miss Marley was there.  It was apparent that today was indeed a special occasion, as she had traded in her usual dog-hair laden sweaters for a more formal, mute-colored dress.  Two options likely were in order for her rustic attire. One was she went buck-wild at an Amish garage sale. The other possibility is the shivering thought of a poor Burmese boy, waking up to the bright sun igniting his room, searing his retinas.  With blurred vision, the boy looks to his window and lets out a terrified roar.  His mother, rushing to the aid of her son, shrieks at the horrible sight and begins pleading to her deity as to why some monster would steal her old, beaten up drapes.  A 16 hour flight and a war with a needle and thread later, Miss Marley would have the wardrobe she always wanted.

An approximation of Miss Marley's appearance

The mood was set immediately by this draped educator.  For someone whose profession depended on her ability to work with humans both young and old, Miss Marley’s people skills were quite awful.  Her voice was candid; her tone accusational.  This was not a meeting; this was an intervention.  Will had been blindsided.

For the better part of 20 minutes, Will was bombarded with phrases like “kids are failing, I haven’t seen you do ANYTHING!”; “What are you going to do?; “I understand that you didn’t have internet for awhile, but…”; “You need to give me your lesson plans so I can modify.”

If there was one thing that Will learned about himself from his experiences, was that he could take a punch fairly well.  His appearance was cool and calm.  He maintained a positive and upbeat demeanor, giving the illusion that he wasn’t distraught internally.  At the conclusion, Will agreed that he would send his lesson plans to Miss Marley in advance so she could make the necessary “modifications.”  As a requirement for being the department leader, Mrs. Chapman recorded the reasons and outcome of the meeting for documentation purposes, and recited them aloud so that the understanding amongst them were consistent.  Will nodded, and calmly left, his head now an echo chamber:

“Why didn’t you ask or tell me this before?  Why did we have to involve Mrs. Chapman?  She has better things to do than this.  Okay, okay.  I get it.  I’m the low man on the totem pole.  Don’t make waves; just play the game.  No problem.  This will all smooth over...Right?”