Can't We All Just Get Along
I worked in the building I am currently in about 10 years ago.I was fed up with teaching and I saw a job in a foundation doing technology education. I applied and got the job. It started on July 1 so I could start and then decide latter if I wanted to go back to teaching or not.
This job had some strange draw backs right from the start. These guys were outside staff developers with almost no classroom experience. This meant that they felt they knew more about teaching than any teacher did.
I am kind of a local merchant booster, the first day I stopped at this funky coffee shop near the school and bought a cup of coffee. The coffee sucked, so the next day I went across the street to Starbucks and bought my coffee. (I love good coffee.) When I got into the office I could see that everyone looked at me askance. I was trafficking with the mega-enemy.
The foundation mostly ran on Mac's with one PC. I had never used a Mac. This was OK with everyone because they found PC's difficult to use and the fact that I wasn't good on a Mac did make them all feel good. The problem was that after about three days I had figured out how the Mac worked and was having no problems. This did not make people feel good.
By the beginning of August it was obvious that this gig was not going to work. I went to the director and told her that I thought things weren't going well and that I felt I should leave in two weeks. She told me that she was so unhappy with me that she was willing to pay me for two weeks if I would just leave. I have to say I was sort of shocked. I had never had anyone dislike me that much. I never saw myself as polarizing like that.
I guess I'm wrong.
5 comments:
Gee Ed, why are you surprised that people did not like you? You can be a pompous know-it-all once in a while, don't you think?
I've rarely seen you as anything but a pompous know-it-all.
Benjamin Franklin said that there was an anti-intellectual bent in this country. He made this comment a long time ago, but things haven't got much better in this country. People are intimidated by intelligent, independent thinkers. We are all supposed to agree with the asshole who browbeats us for having our own thoughts and opinions. Some assholes are more vindictive and powerful than others, ergo, your stay, and my own stay in the rubber room. Life would be so much easier if we just followed orders, stopped asking questions, and just shut the fuck up.
-from the rubber room
Paul is not on a good list because he is not a good teacher. He hates the kids and never has anything positive to say about anything. His classroom looks like a dump because he puts no effort into making it better. When Ed was sypervising him as his Science AP he did not observe him and so he went through the system untouched. Now that there is an AP observing him he is being called to task. So if you think that not doing observations is not a big deal,ask one of Paul's students what they think of him.
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