January 23, 2007

Today was a long work day. It was actually pretty easy during the school day because I had my double day which means I had back to back planning periods. That is my students went to Gym and then to Art and were out of the classroom for 50 minutes strait. I of course have report cards due soon so I was working on grades and attendance.

However, after work I had a committee meeting. I am a building rep for our district's Career Ladder committee. Career Ladder is a program where teachers commit to so many extra hours of work in things that will improve academics and then get paid at the end of the year for it. There are three stages (levels) and each stage has it's own requirements of responsibilities and and hours that must be completed for the pay given for that stage.

A teacher must be in good standing in order to participate in this program. They are making "good standing" harder and harder to accomplish. Not because expectations are too high. There is actually no way to tell if expectations are too high because the powers that be will not give solid definitions to the criteria listed on our Performance Based Teacher Evaluation that the principals judge us with. The wording is very vague and left very much up to interpretation. This is the instrument that is used not only to determine if we can participate in Career Ladder, but it is also used to determine if we get to keep our job.

Anyway, our committee submitted questions to try and help get some clarifications on these things to HR so we can move forward with the planning of next year's program. Around 5:10 p.m. two women that work in HR came into our meeting to address our concerns. First of all, we submitted, as requested, our questions in writing in November. We were told that we would receive answers in writing in a timely manner. They've not yet put anything in writing and of course they were visibly irritated by being asked to join our meeting.

They proceeded to dance around the questions and throw them back at us. One of the women was actually yelling at us. When we were asked what does distinguished mean in relation to the PBTE she yelled back at us, well don't you know? You know what distinguished looks like. Set your goals towards that.

It took all I had to bite my tongue. Ok, when it comes to my evaluation it does not matter what I think. I don't sign my own damned evaluation. I don't get to fill it out. This is an instrument the district has implemented and given to the principals and told them to use to evaluate us. We ask what does it mean and we get slapped in the face, yelled at and spoken to in a way that was designed to try and make us feel stupid.

I am so sick of crap like this. I have already decided to not do Stage I or II next year just so I don't have to deal with this. But, now I'm thinking of just saying no all together. The woman who yelled at us really "put us in our place." She "reminded" us that Career Ladder was designed as an incentive to be better teachers. It is a reward for being exemplary teachers and not supposed to be extra pay for extra duty type thing. Well, duh.

The thing is, the way she treated us tonight and the way A LOT of the district level employees treat us why should we even try. No matter what you do or how hard you work it's never enough. It's never good. You work your butt off and just get slapped down and spoken to in a very unprofessional and degrading manner.

Anyway, that was my meeting. The other person from my building that is also a building rep and I left while the yelling was still going on. I had to leave or my mouth was going to fly open. Honestly, I really think all the teachers in the district should boycott the program. Our district does not only get money from DESE for it, but they got money from the tax payers. According to state law, if the money is not used is MUST revert back to the tax payers. Our district is getting ready to ask for a tax levee. Losing the money for Career Ladder would hurt their chances for that levee desperately. But, I know this would not happen. There are teachers that would not give up that extra pay and it would only work if NO ONE participated.

So, in the elevator on the way down, I counted to ten and took deep breaths. I reminded myself that I was going home to my children. This is my vent and now I'm going to let it go. I go to work for my students and for myself, not for those people who would do whatever they could to make my work life impossible. Tomorrow will be a better day.