Newbie (12 page)

About that time, a woman leaves the office, jerking Chad quickly behind her, before Mr. Chavez invites me in.

“He’s one of yours, isn’t he?” Mr. Chavez asks as he sits behind his desk.

“Yes. Was there a problem?”

“He’s been having trouble before and after school. Hopefully that’s worked out, though. He seemed to do all right in class today.” I agree, and he continues as I take a seat. “Let’s talk about your lesson. What did you think of it?”

That wasn’t the lesson! It was only part of it. It wasn’t what you think. Well, yes, it was a disaster, but the lesson plan was perfect, and I was going to wow you. It got sidetracked, derailed.

I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. As I snap it shut, I feel a cool tear swamping the edge of my eye. I look down, not knowing what to say. Not all my lessons go well, and some lessons I’ve skipped because I was unprepared. Really, I’m not good at this. He knows now that he made a mistake hiring me, and I made a mistake accepting the position. I struggle to master my voice, but fail and sit silently before Mr. Chavez.

“Well, let’s start with what I noticed.” I close my eyes as he starts. “It’s obvious that your students know your classroom routines. As soon as you started small-group instruction, the rest of the class got to work independently.” My head lifts a bit. “I like how you started by listening to one child read. Do you do assessments with each group?” I nod, not meeting his eyes. “I thought so. Your students seemed comfortable with it.” He continues complimenting my lesson, my group’s performance, and the independence of the rest of the class.

“Now, let’s talk about the Mark thing.”

Here it comes, something like “It all fell apart,” “chaos,” “disgraceful,” “A real teacher would have. . .”

“Teaching isn’t about perfect lessons—it’s about doing the best you can for every child. You took care of Mark, reorganized your class, put them in a situation to be taken care of, then completed your duty to Mark. When something goes terribly wrong, good teachers adapt. You made good decisions, quick decisions, and your students were cared for.”

I’m stunned for a moment. It all sounded positive. Wasn’t it?

“Now, it’s your turn. I’d like to hear what you thought about the lesson.” We talk about it, the part he saw and the part that was only planned. We look over my assessments and discuss goals for my students’ achievement, goals for my career along with the next steps I need to take in planning lessons.

“You owe me twenty bucks.”

“Okay, why?” I grab my purse and hand Mina the last of my plasma money.

Mina digs through the fridge, tossing sandwich meat, cheese, and condiments on the counter. “The sweetest little girls from your school came by not fifteen minutes ago. One was named Candace, quite the little salesperson, then Charlotte gives me a catalog. They looked so happy and hopeful. I bought some grealcome.”

“Oh, Mina! No!” I slump to the couch. “I mean yes, I want to support the school’s fundraiser, but this isn’t how I wanted to spend the last of my mad money.” (I call it “mad money” because even I think I’m mad for still donating plasma as often as I do.)

“Sorry hon. I thought you got paid, and it would be fine.”

“It’s okay.”

“White or wheat?” I ask, opening the bread cupboard. Suddenly, I remember, in my haste to go to Mr. Chavez’s office, I failed to hand out the flyers for the fund-raiser. I’ll get them out tomorrow.

“Wheat.”

She grabs a butter knife, and I ask, “What does the paper look like?”

She describes mine and hers and all the different birthday bags. We start putting mayo on the bread when Karli comes in the front room with left-overs from a late luncheon her company had; fried zucchini spears, shrimp fritters and caprese salad, and for dessert orange rolls. Mmm, beats bologna. It’s really great having Karli here. Why was I reluctant to get a roommate in the first place?

The next afternoon, I hear screams before I even open the front door. “You will pack and be out this week.” Mina’s reaming Karlie. “In what world would this be okay? Don’t even count on your deposit back—with the damage you caused I should charge you extra, and I will if you aren’t gone before the first.” Mina raises her finger in Karlie’s face. “I had better not hear or see your clogging shoes out even once for the rest of the time you’re here.” Then Mina turns to me. “Place an ad on Craig’s List. We need a new roommate.”

There are only a few days of this month left, and I need a roommate to pay that part of the rent. I wonder if the fight is something that can be set right so Karlie can stay or if I need to put out another add ASAP. I’ve rarely seen this intense side of Mina. I’m more than curious what has caused the blow up, but I’ll be patient to find out. This is not the best time. Both women about face, storm away from each other, and then slam the doors to their bedrooms.

Karlie wastes no time, and I hear her packing late into the night. Early Wednesday morning, her sister and brother-in-law help her haul her stuff out. She’s going to stay with them until she finds a new place. When they take the last boxes out, I step into the room and can see immediately see why Mina chucked her. The beautiful wood floor’s finish is marred, scratched, and full of divots.

It has to be repaired, but I’ve already spent the deposit Karlie gave me, so I really can’t hire someone to come in and do it. After work, I google, How to refinish a wood floor? There are four steps. The first two can take place in a day, then each remaining step takes another day. If I start tonight, it will be ready for someone to move in on the first.

I run to the rental store. It’s been a couple of months since I’ve used my credit cards because they were maxed out, but I’m so glad there’s a little room on them now. My last thought before sleep is—I’ve topped them off again.t wrapping paper and gift bags from them, and I knew you would want to support the kiddos too, so I got you some as well, and you’re we

H
onestly, I’ve never seen anything like it. I can’t keep my eyes off Mrs. Hays’ sweater.

“Sophie, faculty meeting is tomorrow after school.”

Her sweater vest is completely covered with embroidered felt leaves tacked onto the sweater by the stems.

“It starts promptly at three. Can you please be on time?”

All together, the look of the sweater is kind of like a large bird, molting.

“We also have parent/teacher conferences in two weeks.”

Every autumn color is represented—red, green, brown, yellow, and orange—in tacky profusion.

“Please send these home with your students for the parents to make their appointments.”

Something hits my hand, and I glance down. Oh, a stack of papers. “Thank you,” I tone vacantly.

When she leaves, Beth and I clean up our lunches to head back to our rooms. My eyes must have looked as bewildered as I felt because Beth interjects, “She’s the queen of teacher sweaters.”

“Teacher sweaters?” I ask as we walk down the hall.

“Sweaters only a teacher would wear.” Beth smiles. “It’s her thing—what she’s known for. You can tell the time of the year by her wardrobe.”

Each day this week, I’ve stayed an hour or two after work to make lesson plans, then come home to add urethane to the floor. I finish on Friday, and the room looks great. It will dry overnight, then tomorrow afternoon, I can replace the baseboards. We have some potential roommates coming tomorrow evening to look at the room. You can bet I’ll be asking specific questions about how they plan to take care of the room.

Mina interviews the applicants with me. When they’re all gone, we sort through and choose a girl we were both impressed with, Scarlet Roland. She works as a paralegal. Mina calls her and arranges to sign the contract on Monday.

September 29, 2007

Newbie Blog:

What Are They Talking About?

We had faculty meeting right after school on Thursday. I know, I’ve written about faculty meetings before and I’ve mentioned the fact that I’m lost the whole time, but seriously, I was there for an hour and a half and I don’t know what we did. This time, however, I took copious notes, so here you go:

1. This year our PLC will be focusing on DBDM. Each grade level should review their gap stats from the CRTs and the NRTs for all students.

2. Identify ILOs for your grade level in each content area.

3. Make a list of students who didn’t make AYP, then over the next couple of weeks prepare AIPs to satisfy RtI for students at-risk. Outlines for this can be found in the OBE binders given out last spring.

4. Also, please read student cume folders with special attention to IEPs and 504s. Know them and follow them.

5. If you have students you believe should have a review referencing their IDEA status, please contact the LEA.

6. Also, FuBAs must be completed before BIPs can be put in place.

7. If certain criteria is met, students can be administered AAs instead of CRTs and NRTs, but only if the IEP team writes it in the IEP before the window.

8. Check the ELP scores for your ELLs and make recommendations for ESL support.

9. NCLB, which is the new ESEA, has provisions for LEP before IEPs can be put in place. Document the services students receive.

10. Our SCC has approved the SIP, and copies will be available next week.

11. Finally, if you have completed an MA, EdD, or PhD the paperwork must be submitted before October 15th to be reflected in your lane and step.

See what I mean? Yeah, I have no clue. I’m not making this up; they really talked about this. The only thing I did understand at the meeting was item #12, I have completely forgotten about the school fund-raiser. I’ve got to send those flyers out with students next week. I think they’re on my desk. Faculty meeting—what a waste of time. Teachers talk in a secret code, and I’m not part of the club.

I wake up naturally at six thirty on Monday morning, and not because my roommate is clogging next door. Before my eyes are even open, I start thinking about today. It’s payday! However, that celebration only last as long as it takes to think those two words. I’ll have to pull out my budget again and see how it’s going. Because I needed to learn to refinish floors last week—thank you ex-roomie—I wasn’t able to put in enough time to really have the lessons for this week ready to go. I should probably get to school a little early and look over my plan book.

Grabbing a large stack of papers from my mailbox in the office, I peek in Beth’s door to say hello before I head to my room. Mr. Sam has placed another desk in my room with a note from the secretary, saying I should expect a new student this morning. His name is Archer. I move his desk alongside Melissa, who is such a little teacher that she will enjoy having him copy everything she does.

Today, I only pull out worksheets once. After school, Beth comes by to see if I need help (yes), but I decline, not wanting to burden her. She’s only been back a week and I can get through this, but not tonight. Tonight we have a new roommate, and I have to be home for dinner together and some bonding time.