David kicked Max in the face as hard as he could, twice.  Nan managed to grab him as he was trying for a third attempt. He has been suspended and won’t be back until Thursday. We are having a meeting to discuss the situation on Friday morning, and I am going to ask the team (psychologist, social worker, etc.), “at what point do we ...

Alas, it was another difficult morning. Most of the hour I had before school started I was at a tech meeting in the computer lab, where we learned how to do a behavior screener on each child.  I got all mine done — which was good — but only with lots of technical glitches, which was not so good.  Everyone on the staff is ...

When I heard that Wonder Woman was moving on to a better school, I emailed the principal (let’s call him the Prince, shall we?) telling him my concerns and asking for some reassurance.  That was a month ago, and no, of course he hasn’t responded.  The Prince probably doesn’t have email underground where he’s buried his ...

What a discouraging week.  The lead master teacher at my school has decided to work elsewhere.  She wants to work at a school with strong leadership and a staff dedicated to improving results for children.  That witch!!!  Seriously though, can you blame her? So I am left contemplating a return to work in the fall, minus [...]

It’s Friday night, I’ve got three days of teaching left, and I’m one glass of chardonnay down so far.  In my role as mentor teacher, I did an observation cycle (pre-observation conference, observation, post-observation conference) with a teacher who didn’t want me in her room all year, so it came down to the last minute.  ...

Yesterday a kindergarten teacher in my mentoring group turned to me at our weekly meeting and hissed, “you should just come and observe me and get it over with, I don’t care when. Actually, just skip it and give me all twos, because I don’t give a ***!” Her voice was filled with [...]