I'm busting ass this year. I'm very pleased with myself because I just think I'm doing a better job all the way around. I'm getting good results and I like all my kids and life is good.
Except this "documentation" business. Everyone is documenting. I feel as if there is a microscope impinging on my anal orifice. Excellent teachers that I know are being "documented" with "Omissions of Opportunity." That's a nice way to say they are being written up.
I'm getting mixed messages. I have to post "learner expectations," "TEKS" (don't even ask), I have to have a word wall, and I have to have an agenda posted. My head was spinning. None of those things make me a better teacher. What makes me a better teacher is being able to read new things about my content area, having time to post grades quickly (which is an issue when the program isn't working right and the network is wonky).
I'm aggravated because we apparently omit opportunities when we can't submit attendance in a timely manner and the network times out. I have computer issues at school and when I go to the right department to fuss about the attendance they seem incapable of understanding what I'm telling them. I get a "pat" response which tells me 1) The support staff is not listening to what I tell them and 2) They are not bright enough to understand a verbal description.
I have to "document" that I encounter idiocracy. To cover my own prodigious backside I have to also document. The ubiquitous THEY started it.
I'm doing a good job. I'm doing a better job. Ask my students. They are having a blast. They are learning a lot. Ask them.
Someone higher up up the food chain is wanting to demonstrate that they are doing their "empty" job so they are creating work for those of us that walk the walk every day.
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