Prologue: It’s May 12th, 2022. And I am tired. Emotionally drained. I don’t remember the last time I took a beer out of the fridge as a way to detox, which is what I did last night. I made some graduation leis on stream to do something mind-numbing.
Today we’re revisiting pt. 1 of this series. I wonder if I’ll just make a series of these side-deals. In pt. 1, we met with a teacher who was asking me to manipulate the schedule to accommodate her needs. ‘Happy employees means they can work better. I agree. Something like a 4-day work week would or a better framework would make me happy. But not a bandaid solution that’s self-serving for only one employee.
Yesterday was one of the most difficult, messy, and chaotic meetings I’ve ever organized and facilitated. I was so nervous, biased, and indignant that I couldn’t speak at times. And had to lean on the EL Coordinator to articulate my thoughts that were on the agenda.
Well, let’s get into this final department meeting for the year.
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On May 4th & 5th, I honestly had some of the chillest days I had in a while. Per my last entries, I for once didn’t get any emails about some sort of complaint. Or space I needed to uphold for their white fragility. I did have other meetings that I forgot about. But it was chill. The weekend was relaxing. I was home alone for Mother’s Day. So come Monday, May 9th. I was recharged from a restful weekend, but called into my admin’s office to talk about master scheduling again.
On Friday, May 6th. My admin set up a meeting with this teacher to tell them that they’re going to teach Sheltered English 1 courses instead of all 5 classes being English 1.
To be clear, this teacher has been teaching English 1 her entire career. Before I was born.
This teacher brought another one of our colleagues to the meeting, probably for back up. They complained about scheduling and what is going to happen to these Sheltered classes now that my English Learner Coordinator is leaving this school year.
Admin dropped the hammer and said it’s assigned to them. This teacher obviously got upset. They asked
“Why are only English 1 (9th grade) teachers being asked?”
So bother teachers began to look at the schedule and ask about “Well what about this teacher [millienial, sheltered 12th grade teacher] or this teacher [millienial ELD 12th grade & Yearbook teacher] or this teacher [millienial ELD 10th grade teacher] or this teacher [Student life coordinator and 10th grade teacher] or this teacher [12th grade teacher and a Teacher on Special Assignment for the district]?”
They even went as far as questioning one of the other teachers I wrote about in pt. 2. Because they’re losing their extra prep period, they obviously have space to teach 9th graders despite them teaching 12th grade AP Lit/Euro Lit???
Clearly targeting younger teachers. Clearly showing that they think these young teachers don’t do anything. 3/5 Millenial teachers already teach ELD/sheltered. And 3/5 are already involved with another role for the site/district in some other capacity.
As I’ve stated in pt. 2, I met with hella of my staff to ask if they could take on these Sheltered classes and they said no—especially those who already teach Sheltered 10th grade or ELD 2.
The irony in the teachers targeted in the passage above is that all those teachers volunteered to step up to take Sheltered English 1 if no one took it.
The conversation between admin and my staff ended with the teacher saying,
“Why am I being punished [with Sheltered English 1]?”
Punished.
Teaching English Learners is punishment. So does that make teaching kids with IEPs/504s a punishment? Differentiating is punishment?
These are the teachers at my school. Why are you even a teacher if you’re going to call English Learners your punishment?
If you don’t want to teach ELs or Special Ed students. Go work at a private or charter school. But really, how can you call yourself a teacher if that’s how you view students.
This isn’t even about how overworked or stretched thin teachers are. This is just a toxic, racist perspective this teacher has of our growing population of immigrant students.
Both teachers suggested that (the back up teacher) was previously department head and could make this master schedule work in 30 minutes.
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So on Monday, May 9th. I met with this admin. They were still trying to process what happened on Friday, May 6th. And they suggested that I have my department make the master schedule in 30 minutes. They said “We used to just write everything down [and bing bang boom] it’s done”
30 minutes huh. My EL Coordinator and I already wanted to host a discussion to reimagine what Sheltered/EL classes could be. So we wrote the Purpose/Vision we have for this department and some rationales to help explain why.
A colleague in the Fall told me, “I shouldn’t have to explain myself [for changes I advoate for]” which I agreed to. And I still do. But I realize that these veteran teachers aren’t hearing me.
They think I’m some sort of lap dog or puppet to the admin. That these changes I’ve implemented this year weren’t my decision. But some omniscient power. And I want to make that clear.
We ultimately drafted this:
I was hoping this would help frame and if anything even convince colleagues to take on Sheltered English 1. That this could start a conversation of reimagining the support we have for each and every student, especially our ELs.
But no. This 30-minute activity of creating a master schedule. I learned that many of my teachers barely know how to use Google Sheets. So I went analog
Someone brought up the Sheltered classes as we discussed our rationales, so I decided to push the agenda, “Exactly, so that’s why we’re going to collaborate on creating a draft of the master schedule. I was told that the department used to do this in 30 minutes, let’s do it together”
The teachers that said we could do it in 30 minutes were all shocked and acted like “oh my, who could’ve suggested such a thing”
They were so lost asking, “Well what do you want us to do?” “Just put up the same schedule as last year?”
I said “well, yes you can do that. No one’s schedules really changed, so just write down what your preference is like you all claimed you did before”
Cogs started turning. Homies put in their schedules. The old heads theirs. The previous department head pulled me aside as we analyzed the filled in the schedule on the board. “This doesn’t add up”
And that was the moment the admin were looking for. For folks to realize that this two month process in 30 minutes is futile. Bickering ensued.
Staff: “We’re contractually only supposed to have two preps, and the 3rd one is voluntary” *prep as in type of class, not prep period*
“There should be a designated person who teaches EL to fill this role”
“There’s not enough space for these sheltered classes”
“Our class sizes will grow”
“We don’t want to feel like first year teachers again?! It takes time to master your craft and become good at what you do”
“Having two preps is really difficult” “Three is harder!”
There’s a lot of things I couldn’t answer regarding the movement of course sections. This was unfortunate because I needed the admin at that meeting. Unfortunately, they had to conduct internal position interviews. For 22-23 SY we need 76 sections of English. I know the math adds up. But for some reason it wasn’t on the board.
Amidst the bickering, one of the staff asked, “Okay, well, it seems like the problem here is that Sheltered should go to someone who has one prep. So? How has one prep?”
Silence
The teacher from pt. 1 appealed to the “master of her craft” argument and that she “loves what she does”. Also that “5 sections of 9th grade is very difficult”.
This contradicts what all her friends just said.
As the conversation opened, teachers realizing that the easiest solution here is to switch out three of their Gen Ed 9th grade sections with the Sheltered English 1 courses. And suddenly, teachers but in about the poetry contest when I hadn’t moved the agenda because time was running low. The conversation was cut short.
Colleagues looked at the board schedule and realized there were one, rather three, too many English 1 sections written on the board. We were projected to have 16 based on the 22-23 SY enrollment. And there were 19 on the board. This just further proves the easiest solution is to take the teacher that has one prep and swap their courses with Sheltered English 1.
__________
Epilogue:
Today, many of my 11th graders saw the mock schedule on the board. Asking what it was. I explained to them the situation. And many of them saw the logical conclusion to solve the problem. They also had more understanding of the pressure and stress I’ve been under the past two months.
The end of the semester is two weeks away. And there’s still a lot of unknowns despite the story you just read. Internal positions can change the master schedule. On top of the influx of transfer students. Especially with current events causing ripples in the migration of refugee families.
There’s more to learn. And despite the chaos and stress. One teacher thanked me for bringing this conversation to the table. Despite them causing most of my headaches and making me feel small. Like I always tell myself. It’s a one degree shift.
Balasbas Says 