Today I met the second interviewing
candidate for my job. I was not impressed with her. When my principal
brought her to my room she didn’t ask any important questions. I
talked most of the time telling her about the program. Since I didn’t
recognize her, and I hadn’t heard of her I started asking questions
about her background. It was probably unfair of me to do that, but
since it was just us I couldn’t help my curiosity. She said that
she started going to college for music, but then switched to general
agriculture at a community college. She then transferred to a state
school, and graduated approximately 10 years after high school. She
had only been teaching for a year, and had little experience. I could
have overlooked most of these things if she had seemed genuinely
interested in my position. She didn’t ask about any of the extra
duties like the field or greenhouse, which made me think that she
didn’t want to have anything to do with them. She didn’t ask
about FFA, which again made me think it wasn’t high on her priority
list. She also said that she wanted to stay in the Cedar Rapids area,
which is why this position appealed to her. In my experience it
would be easier to live closer than an hour to the town you teach in.
The extra things that need to be checked on couldn’t be checked on
if she lived that far away. I don’t think my administration was
impressed with her either, so again we are in agreement on my
replacement.
 |
| If I help students outside of the classroom, like at the State Fair, I usually don't have to worry about behavior issues. |
Today at the middle school I had to
deal with some mean girls. In all of my eight years I have been pretty
lucky that I haven’t had to deal a lot with mean girls. It is more
common for me to deal with inappropriate and disrespectful boys. Boys
usually give as good as they get to each other. I think I can handle
that much better because I use guilt for those boys. Once I do that
usually the problem takes care of itself and it’s over. Boys don’t
hang onto things like girls do. At the middle school I had a couple
of girls making fun of a boy that doesn’t have the best hygiene.
They were saying things like for his birthday they were going to get
him soap, deodorant, toothbrush, etc. I was horrified. The boy is a
bit of a show off, and I know the boy gives it right back. I didn’t
hear what started it though, so I asked the girls to stay after
class. Once everyone left, I explained why I had held them after
class. They looked at the ground and seemed embarrassed that they had
been overheard making fun of a classmate. I only spent about 2
minutes speaking to them, but I think it was pretty effective. I
asked them what they had to say for themselves, and they
all shook their heads and continued to look at the ground. I started by saying that they had no excuse for that kind of
behavior. It was mean and cruel, and how would they feel if that had
been done to them. I also backed up my guilt trip with some
consequences. I said that if it happens again some unpleasant
detention would follow. Scraping gum off the bottom of tables is more
effective than calling parents that don't do anything. I dismissed
them after that. I’m anxious to see how they will be on Monday. I
hope that they remember the discussion, but skip the usual girl
attitude. I could go without the cool looks, and the silent
treatment. If that happens my plan is to meet that behavior with
smiles just to freak them out. It works.
I know I made the right decision
because dealing with over 60 hormonal teens will be a thing of the
past.
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