2002-01-26 - 7:37 a.m.
I just got back to Diaryland and found that everyone had updated but me (and Vero and Paulson). Been reading y'all's disries and I discovered that epiphany resorts to using the Preacher voice with his students, too. Sometimes you have to! Many times I have used the "you have let me down" speech on some poor 8th grader.
We are currently getting ready for the last grade 8 TAAS writing test (it goes to grade 7 next year) on February 19. I must say that I am good at getting kids ready for it (I have matched or beaten my department head's passing average for the last 5 years), but it is so boring. The kids are bored ... I'm bored ... I can't wait until it's over.
OK. I might get in trouble for the next story, because the woman in question has (or had at one point) my email address and could conceivably google on over here, but here goes.
There is a woman at my school who, up until last year, was a teacher. She's really smart, but she has bad people skills and, because she is insecure, she tends to be over sensitive and to strike out either with no reason or in the wrong direction. Anyway, she took over the Instructional Facilitator position this year. She is supposed to be a liaison between the faculty and the administration, organize testing and special events, etc.
Yesterday I was in the teachers' lounge just getting ready to eat. She had just finished having an argument with another teacher who she is trying to force to take some training and, because she is so abrasive, he was refusing to do it. I actually heard her threaten him that she was going to "talk to the principal." Like a kid threatening a peer! Then she came up to me and said, "Did you get my note?" (about a disagreement we had had) and I said (in monotone) "Yes." "Did you understand it?" "Yes." Then, hands on hips, she stares at me challengingly, "And?" Like she wants to fight with me! I said, "And I'm eating lunch right now." Though she likes to pretend she has forgotten what it's like to be a teacher, she should certainly remember that we have about 20 minutes in which to eat lunch, so that time is pretty precious. Anyway, she spun around, flounced out of the room, and slammed the door. Everyone looked at me as if to ask what the hell I had said to her. Then another teacher, who is closer to her, said that she had gone over to their house for something and this woman's husband had accosted her and demanded to know why people were not socializing with her anymore. I should think the answer would be self-evident. People don't like the way she talks to them, they don't like how she goes off, how she threatens them (I'm going to tell the principal, I'm going to take away your copy code, etc.), how she acts like she is an administrator when she isn't, how she enjoys being petty when wielding her power and making people jump through hoops, etc. She has created most of her own problems.
Anyway, I've thought about talking to her about this, but I don't know that it would do any good.
In other news, another person joined my queerteacher ring. Check her out here. Pretty exciting.
Opal
