The principal requested to see me about having the class do a history project.
It seems that she's extremely worried about how behind my classes were in history. She decided that instead of me teaching the 13 colonies, I should have the girls put into groups, have each group prepare one section of the chapter, and then teach it to the rest of the class. It should take no more than a week and their presentations themselves will be considered their test.
It isn't a bad idea considering that this topic could take anywhere from 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 weeks to cover.
I also liked it that the girls would be doing some of their own work instead of having me spoon feed it to them.
Because I smiled a lot, and really agreed with the principal, I believe she has put me back into her good graces. She was very excited about the whole thing and she even walked me to class.
That's when the trouble started.
The science teacher was doing life forms with them, and she had brought mealworms in for them to study. The worms were left under the windows all night, and by this morning they had literally frozen to death. Aside from the science teacher, everyone thought this hilarious.
When I walked into class, the board read the following:
"We cried and cried, it's very sad. The funeral will be held at 2:45 pm and we will be sitting shivah in room 406"
underneath this message, someone had been giving a history lesson, so she had written a bunch of history facts and my name.
When the principal saw all this, she thought that they had put my name under that message on purpose. She ran into that class to give them a talking to like they've never had. Aside from the fact that my name was on there, (which was a total misconception,) she was upset because two kids in the class had lost family members and funerals were not a joke to them.
I agreed that they needed to be spoken to, but I didn't like her approach, and I told her so.
The principal yelled at me too telling me that I'm very young and inexperienced and that I didn't know anything about how to teach young girls important lessons. She also asked me not to come into class and that I should wait out in the hallway.
So, for the second time in less than a week that I'm stuck walking in the halls while my class is being spoken to.
When I walked into class the girls were pretty upset, and they tried talking to me.
I turned the situation to my advantage and told them that I have a policy not to get involved in class politics.
I told them that I like to make my own impressions of my students and were I to be involved in every petty situation I might start looking at them differently. I might begin thinking of girls as troublemakers or as immature. I told them that I leave it in their hands to impress me and that not necessarily is the Principal's problem one that concerns me.
The girls were so excited and they told me how they loved that I'm so neutral. (I just hope they don't get their hands on this blog and see how much I really know!)
I totally don't mind the principal making issues out of tissues because now my students just like me more. It definitely makes my life easier. The down side is that the principal just wasted an hour of my classtime in a class that I'm already behind in. Yippee.
The principal also tried coming in to speak to both classes about the hygiene problem in the grade, but she didn't even get two words in before the bell rang.
I have a feeling that I'll be hanging around the halls for quite some time!
