Third Week of February -- A Mid-Week Rant

TUESDAY
We interrupt this week's post for a rant session. If you are not interested in hearing Mrs. Chandler rant about her co-workers and the writing test, please skip to Wednesday.


I don’t do last minute. Seriously, I don’t. I’ve even been known to get a little hostile at the suggestion. Take this morning… We started the writing test this morning. In my preparations for this test, I moved my furniture around, positioning dictionaries, notebook paper and Kleenex in three convenient locations around the classroom. I made copies of the transition list, the spelling dictionary, and the guide to revision, as I was supposed to. I sharpened 3 boxes of pencils, and set out Wite-Out, pens, and erasers with them. I had already read over the test administration instructions and my scripted directions to the students. I had a sign ready for my door (We’re testing! Do not disturb!), I checked on immunization exclusions to make sure none of my kids were affected, and I’d already verified with the safety committee that there would be no fire drills during the writing test. (Yes, there are people who really are that stupid.) I was ready!

In fact, I was getting ready for a different event when another teacher came in to talk to me this morning. She showed up at 8 a.m. as I was headed to pod duty, with students already in my room. She started picking up some of my prepared copies and questioning them, saying she didn’t think they were allowed on the test. She questioned a poster of lines that hangs in my room, saying that wasn’t allowed either. Then she said the principal would be very uncomfortable with the fact that the transitions on my transition list were in boxes. She told me I needed to recopy them without the lines or boxes, but then said she was going to take a copy to one of the other 7th grade teachers because “everyone needs to use the same thing.” (This is not true, actually, as anyone who has read the test administration manual would know.) When I told her that we don’t all have to use the same thing, she said the others deserved to have whatever I’m using. “Don’t you think they’ll want it too?” she said. I replied that if they wanted what I use, they could have had it a month ago when we discussed all of this. She told me I should just take class time to make new copies without lines, and then make copies for the other teachers. I laughed at her and said, “I don’t do last minute.”

At that point, I became aware that there were students in my room listening to the entire conversation. In fact, I missed whatever this teacher said next because a couple of my students started laughing. I turned around to look at them, and they had the grace to look sheepish. They were obviously watching my conversation with her, and when I repeated my statement that I don’t do last minute, they laughed again. They were listening to us and laughing! I gave them a weird, “what are you laughing at” look, and one of them spoke up and said, “That’s true. Mrs. Chandler always has a plan. She doesn’t do anything at the last minute.” And they all nodded in agreement. The other teacher seemed flustered by this, and when a student asked me a question, she simply turned around and left.

I managed to put my irritation aside in order to get my students started on the test for the rest of the day, but I’m still irked by the entire encounter. Why do people assume that I don't know or abide by the rules? I've proctored this test for SEVEN YEARS now. Why do people assume that I don’t have my stuff ready or my lessons planned or my preparations done? Why do they assume that I can “drop everything” (because they assume there’s nothing to drop) to do what they want me to do? I don’t teach based on whims, and I don’t plan my lessons the day OF. I hardly ever make copies the morning I need them (because I hate that and because there’s usually a line, and I don’t believe in standing in lines). I’m offended at the unspoken assumptions here – that I don’t know the rules and that I still need to prepare things. I am professional. I am prepared. I don’t do last minute. Now leave me alone and let me do my job!

I need a chill pill.
This concludes the mid-week rant session. And now, back to our regularly-scheduled program.