Seeking Advice
This last May, I completed my alternative certification in Secondary ELA Education. Yay! On June 28th, I was hired at a junior high to teach 8th grade ELA. YES! There is just a problem and I could use some advice.
I am moving into a room that was previously used as a storage room for the gifted education teacher. The teacher is “losing” her storage room, and she isn’t happy about it. At all. So, she is refusing to move her stuff out, and the principal is doing nothing about it. School starts August 11th. Starting August 3rd, August 4th, August 8th, 9th, and 10th, I will be in professional development courses from 8:00 am - 5:00 pm.
I’ve actually emailed the teacher twice. The first time was to introduce myself as a new co-worker and the second was to ask if she needed any help. She has an actual classroom. She just used this one to store her junk.
According to the education coordinator, she is the only teacher on campus with a doctorate, so she does her own thing and the principal lets her do what she wants. The E.C. kind of warned me to say on her good side, as she can and will make it hard for me. The teacher was told in late May that she would have to clean the room out. The education coordinator and principal have called her. Apparently, she moved half the stuff out in June and then never came back, because “she didn’t feel like coming.” She never turned my emails. The education coordinator has let it slip that this teacher is super angry that she has had to give up her storage room, so she has stopped returning the principal’s calls.
But, here is my thing: the school is large in terms of campus size, but has a small student population. There are literally five classrooms that no one is in. No one is planned to be in those rooms for the upcoming school year. They use them for storage and/or Saturday dentations. They could have easily given me one of those rooms, but they chose not to. The size of the room isn’t my issue - it’s that they gave me the one room on campus that needs updating and has someone using it as storage room. It is frustrating.Every other new-hire is in their rooms, setting up and putting together their stuff. All the teachers are back in this week and are setting up. I am not.
The education coordinator and I went to highschool together, where I was a very shy and quiet person, who always followed the rules and never spoke up. I sort of feel like they needed someone to teach four classes, so they hired me, because they thought I would not make waves.
The school hired six other new teachers, and they have all gotten their room keys and set up their rooms. Most of the teachers are setting up their rooms this week. Twice I have been to the school - which is 30 minutes away - because I was told the key would be ready. Only to find out, that it isn’t ready.
I am physically disabled and do not drive - I have now had someone to help load my stuff and drive me 30 minutes away to get a key, which isn’t available.
I am very happy to have a job. But, I do feel like I am not being heard by these people. I have not even started, and this is not great. People I graduated with are having a much easier time of things, so it is frustrating. The other new teachers are in their rooms. They literally have empty rooms, which they could have just given me. I see simple solutions to a few issues, and I have voiced them. But, I have been ignored. Including me, they aired seven new teachers between June and early July. These ladies are in their rooms and were given technology, however small - I have to go and buy a computer for my desk.
The curriculum that the school uses is all online. I have to show the students slideshows, videos, etc every class period. But, I can’t do that on a chalkboard. I’ve asked the principals and others for tips on how to do the lessons, but they have shrugged me off and told me they might have an older overhead projector I could use.I would print out the site and summaries of the videos and show them on the projector (it’s not one hooked up to a computer, it’s one from before that). Okay, but I need to get into the room to practice how best to show things.
Being physically disabled, I need to put the room a certain way, so I have room to move without it being awkward or harmful to me. I need time to make sure things are in places where I can easily access them. I can’t do that in a couple of hours. Especially, when I don’t drive and am having to pay people to help me bring the supplies. It frustrates me, because the principal knows all of this, but she still shrugs it off.
Is there anything I can do to get things moving? I even asked for a different room or something, and that has been ignored. My mom suggested I contact the school board, but I don’t want to cause problems.