Paul's Infrequently Updated Blog

I have finally had my last day at Arlington High School and just got back from Nebraska. The last day of school was on June 22nd and I have to say I was not sorry to leave. Having also just spent the last week in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, I am looking forward to our big move at the end of July.

The end of my time at Arlington went very well. The last week and a half of school was dominated by the Regents Exams. These went very well for my classes. For my Global Studies II students, I had an 83% pass rate, which was pretty good considering the students I had to deal with this year. Every one of the students who I predicted would fail, failed the state Regents Exam and almost all failed my class as well.

To be honest, I do not feel sorry for a lot of those kids. Many of them were disruptive, annoying, little punks who wasted my time as well as their own. Most of the kids who passed deserved to pass and I am happy for them. There was one student who had worked hard all year and ended up on the borderline between pass and fail. The good thing was that I was able to find the points she needed to pass, so I was happy for her. She was so worried about failing, but, after all the work she put in, she deserved to pass.

The one thing that bothered me in the last week was that several teachers in my department did not get good pass rates in their classes. One teacher, who has been at the school for the last seven years, and who is a excellent teacher, had a bad pass rate in his U.S. History classes. He was losing sleep about it and stressing out because of how the administration might react. Honestly, this is one of the reasons I am leaving this district. If your students get poor grades, then the teacher is the one to blame. It does not matter if you had poor students or even a class of special needs kids. They DEMAND that you get them through the Regents Exam and have a passing rate at least in the mid-eighties.

If this does not happen, you get yelled at by the department Coordinator and threatened with your job. They also go on about your reputation and how it will suffer because your students have poor grades. What I think was really going on is that the school administration was really concerned about its reputation and boosting its ranking in the U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Schools” annual review.

So, if there is ever a problem or issue, then the administration finds some one (usually teachers) to blame. I personally find the school and the district very unprofessional in this regard and find it amazing that the Principal recently won a major award based on the great job he was doing at the school. I guess those who gave him the award did not visit the school or speak to any of the teachers because, if they did, then I don’t think he would have that award.

My penultimate day at Arlington was spent gathering all my things and clearing out my desk. As I was doing this, one of my fellow teachers in the Social Studies Department came to my room to present me with a $30 gift card to Borders bookstore. I thought this was a very nice gesture. The little note that came with it said from all your colleagues in the Social Studies Department, but I cannot help but think that is not totally true. There were several people in the department I did not know very well and some a did not feel comfortable around me, but it was still nice to get the gift card.

After I was given the card, the teacher talked to me about some of the things that were going on at Arlington, most of it not good, including the situation with the football coaches who had all just been fired because last season the team had a 3-8 record. It was typical that they would be fired months after the season ended. Worse is that many of the coaches depend on the extra 5-10k a year that a coaching job is worth. Many of them depended on that money to support their families. Again, someone else gets the blame and the administration does what it can to save its reputation.

The last day at Arlington consisted of the usual, which means waiting around for three hours until we get an announcement to go to the last faulty meeting of the year. I did not pay attention to most of it but I did listen when the Principal announced the retirements and the people who were leaving. I was surprised by a few names because I did not expect them to leave, but saw them as lifers at the school. All I can say is good for them

After the meeting, my three years at Arlington High School were over and I went to the mail room to pick up my final checks, said my goodbyes, and then it was off to Scottsbluff, Nebraska!

Tuesday was my last ever day of classes at Arlington and I feel happy that it is over. I am very happy that I don’t have to teach 5th period (9th graders), or 8th period (10th graders). These were the two worst classes I have ever had to teach and it was sad that my last ever lesson at Arlington should be with that 8th period bunch of yobs. I try not to think bad of students, but some of them truly were little punks who had no respect.

Several of them were on probation and, at the start of the year, one of them even had an ankle bracelet to track his movements as he had just been released from Juvenile Detention. I can say right now that many of them have not passed the Global History Regents because they did nothing all year. Of course, if they do not pass the Regents they cannot graduate. I feel I did everything I could to help these kids and, since most of them will have passed, I feel vindicated in the methods I used to teach them.

The Global History Regents was actually yesterday and we spent most of today at the school grading essays. The kids write two essays and, after a while reading them, it gets tedious and boring. At least they are done now and all I have to do is put together their multiple choice scores with their essay scores and short answers. Looking at the exams I think most of the kids have done quite well but we will see.

The good news is that I am now on Christmas break. I don’t have to go back to school til January 2nd, which is nice. The bad news is that, on Friday, our union (which is supposed to look after our interests) sent us a notice that it was going to cut the fee schedule 20% on our dental benefits.

At my school district, our medical insurance is covered 92% by the district and we make up the remaining 8% which is about $89 a month this school year. For some reason, our Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance does not cover dental or vision. Instead, we have something called the Wellfare Trust, which covers all the teachers in the school district. This Trust is run by the union, which gets money from the district each year from the Trust. Additonal money also comes from the union by way of our union dues. Since September, the Welfare Trust has run at a deficit every month, cutting into the trust reserve. So, on the day we begin Christmas break they send us all a notice letting us know of the benefit cut.

The problem I have with this is that the dental benefit provided is already pretty crap. My orthodontic treatment is not covered at all and every time I go for the routine checkup I end up paying a lot of money for the visit. Even worse, they only cover dependents one half what they cover employees, meaning they now pretty much pay nothing for dependents. The result is that Irene cannot go to the dentist and I have to fund most of my own dental care out of my own pocket.

I was all ways told that one of the great benefits of being a teacher was the great benefits. The low pay teachers received was made up for in great health benefits, vacation time, and good retirement package. Since I became a teacher, I have found all that to be crap. What is more is that things seem to be getting worse. Along with all the other nonsense I have to put up with, it just gives me one more reason not to be a teacher. It also give me yet another reason to move from New York.

Okay, so we just had another Open Day for parents at school. I never see the point of these events. The only reason I for doing it is to allow the parents of your kids to see who you are. Parents follow the kids’ schedule and they get to see you for ten minutes. That gives you enough time to talk about the course and requirements and that’s pretty much it.

The thing that sucks is that the day is broken up into two sessions, one in the early afternoon and one in the evening. What really sucks is that I go home for a few hours in the afternoon before going back at night. By the time it is over, it is very late and I am so tired plus, I have to get up next day to go back to school. Oh…and Open Day is also a school half-day so I have to teach in the morning. Overall, it is a pretty crappy day and I am glad it is over for another year.

Okay it has been almost a year but I am back to blogging. In the past year, another school year went by and a new school year is about to begin. The friends that I have that are teachers all seem to be excited to be going back to school but I am dreading the start of the new school year. It will be another year of BS.

I sometimes have trouble putting a finger on what bothers me but I think the main issue is that, being a teacher, you are expected to please EVERYONE. Of course, this is impossible so, no matter how hard you try, you are going to end up pissing somebody off. Students want good grades and don’t like it when they don’t get the grades they want. Parents whine when you flunk their child and then, when they don’t like what you tell them, they complain about you to the administration. I ABSOLUTELY hate this. Often you get called down there and the parent always makes the situation out to be a bigger event than what it really is. The final group is the administration and even other teachers who always seem to find something to nit-pick about.

The other issue is the nonsense about test scores. You have to have decent test scores or your job is on the line. Trouble is that students come in all types and sometimes you might get more of one kind than another. This can affect scores and no matter what you do as a teacher this will not change. This issue is often not taken into account at the end of the year when the administration looks at test scores.

The final issue with teaching is that I simply don’t like having to deal with people. I am a naturally introverted person so getting up in front of a large group of people is never comfortable for me. Dealing with one person or small groups is okay but getting up in front of 25-30 people is always difficult. At the end of the day, I don’t see myself being a teacher for 30 or 40 years but right now I am trying to figure out what sort of career I would enjoy and be good at. I have been looking at career options but I am finding the whole thing frustrating and difficult. In the mean time the new academic year looms……………..