The job story...

So, because I only want to type this once in one place, here ya go:

The story goes:
My principal has been out this year b/c her granddaughter was diagnosed with cancer. She was not on campus from about October to March. During her absences we had no principal for a while, then we had a substitute principal (the woman who was principal before mine), and then finally, someone from Admin was sent to 'watch over us'. Appearantly Admin thinks that if your principal is out, your campus goes to pot.

Anyway, they sent this woman from Admin who decided, at the end of the 4th six-weeks to 'review' our report cards. Her definition of 'review' appearantly is the same as mine of 'going over everything with a FINE toothed comb'. She found, on another person's report card, where 2 letters were reversed. Well, on mine she found a several empty boxes and wanted to know why they were empty. For each section of boxes, my answer was the same, "I don't know why those are empty, I don't even know where in the report card system to find them." So we started looking for those areas on the computerized system. She showed me one area and then she had to take up a search for this one area where the boxes weren't filled in. This is when we discovered other kindergarten teachers had been taking grades for kindergarteners. There were assignments (some tagged daily, some tagged test(!)) with letter grades (E, S, NI, etc). She asked why I didn't have that in mine and I honestly answered, "I didn't know I was supposed to!"

The Admin/principal looked at me like I'd lost my mind. She asked if my principal had covered the grading policies at the beginning of the year. I said yes, but that it was never specified that it applied to kindergarten. I explained that my previous kinder experiences had not required that, and since it was specifically mentioned, I has assumed we didn't take grades here either. She asked how I'd been documenting student progress. I explained that when it's time to complete the report card check-list I brought the student's up and had them complete the variety of activities, and that I send home IEP progress reports every 6 weeks. She informed me that 'this will probably lead to more discussions' and dismissed me.

The next day she asked me to come to the office and informed me that due to this 'breach in district policy' I was no longer employable by Waco ISD. I was told to either resign, or be non-renewed. I explained calmly that this was unfair, that I hadn't known about the district policy. I was basically given a 'sorry 'bout yer bad luck' speech, asked to sign that I would be non-renewed (UM, NO!) and left. I called my supervisor (Lead Deaf Ed) who knew NOTHING of this and talked with her. I also talked to ATPE, who told me I should just resign. Therefore, I did. I am now searching for a job.

FYI: Districts ask if you've resigned in lieu of non-renewal these days.

I went to a job fair in Arlington on Monday. It's where I got my Castleberry and Granbury jobs. I left resumes with 32 out of 64 districts. By the way - that's ALOT! Today I completed 2 applications online. Key phrase at job fair: "Have you completed our online application yet?!" Tomorrow, will fill out more, and then to a job fair in the afternoon.

Anyway, that's the story...

:)