Rocking the Boat

I’m not envious of those TFAers who have gotten into rifts with their departments or administration. I’ve always felt that the appeasement route kept everyone out of my hair. However, I seem to have started my first major fight between my department head and myself.

We have our 6 week common assessment tomorrow. It is 20 questions and will take maybe 30 minutes at most. The school has alotted 2.5 hours for the test. Well, I was concerned as to what the students were going to do with all that extra time, so I proposed to the 7th grade history teachers that we have the student’s answer an essay question. They all thought it was a great idea and we prepared the question.

Today, I was told by my principal that there wouldn’t be time for the essay because no other grade was doing one. The 7th grade could not hold back the rest of the school because it wanted to drag out the test with an essay. Well, I wasn’t happy, so I went to our administrator in charge of curriculum and testing. She thought it was fabulous (woohh!) and then suggested that I talk to all the grades about writing an essay question. So now I am responsible for organizing the essay for all grades. Okay, nothing I can’t handle….yet.

Here is the kicker. I talked to the department head (M.G) and she was not interested. She said she would talk to the testing lady herself. I said fine and walked over to the 6th grade. All other history teachers have agreed to the essay question…let me just state that for the record.

1 hour later, I get a call from one of my 8th grade history teacher pals. Apparently, M.G. came up to him in a rage and went off. “No one is going to tell me what to do with my curriculum, especially some 7th grade teacher.” Hmm, I was just trying to get the students used to writing. At least I’ve got the administration on my side )