ejp626 Posted January 30, 2006 Report Share Posted January 30, 2006 Alexander: I feel for you, but my experiences in two years of inner city teaching can easily top that. I came in with no experience and was put into classes immediately, instead of having a mentor. Not so good, but I had gotten used to it. Then a few weeks into the year, they pulled me out of my classes, gave them to a sub, so I could watch my "mentor," who was among the most useless teachers in the whole school and was only doing this to get the extra bonus money. So that totally undercut my authority with the kids. After a few more weeks of this, I got my students back, then got into a row with the teacher I shared a room with. She put up problems on the board for the entire day and refused to let me erase the blackboard! After complaining about this, I was transferred to the Special Needs classes. Not one, not two, but five periods of teaching remedial math to 9th grade students who had failed math and english in middle school, and were also felt to be discipline problems. It really was little more than baby sitting. I handed out suspensions frequently but was always seen as a weak teacher they could get over on. Many of the students were waiting to turn 16 to drop out, and I think I lost about five or six to that and two girls got pregnant and left. The second year was marginally better, and I think I reached two of my five classes. One class was horrible with a completely out of control student that I couldn't do anything about (he was related to the school security guard). Oh did I mention the school was considerably mobbed up, with the teachers with the best assignments having ties with the Mob? And a fire drill pulled by the students at least twice, often three or four times a week? And one of my drop-out students from the previous year killed in a shooting, which then started a chain of gang related violence inside the school? And a handful of the very worst teachers either encouraging cheating on the standardized exams or actually selling drugs in the school? Unlike most of my students, I had other options, and I soon exercised them. I did stop by a few years later to see how many of my students graduated, and more did than I would have expected. Now whether that H.S. diploma really means anything is another story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe G Posted January 30, 2006 Report Share Posted January 30, 2006 Wow. I'm going to stop telling people that my job is stressful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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