Most of you know that in addition to being an Army wife, I am a certified music teacher. Teaching jobs - for music at least - have been sparse and so I took a part time (aka 1 day/week) position at a private school.
I was SO excited about this when I was first hired. I should have known that all was not great when I found out that their original hired music teacher left a few days before school started. I was thrown into the job.
When I was hired, I was not given a contract and was told that aside from leading mass on Fridays, that the curriculum would be up to me. However, things have proven to be very different. Since starting, it seems like every other week the principal is calling me into her office to tell me another thing that I cannot do or another way to teach my class (let me also say that she is NOT music certified nor has ever observed my class). She wants me to throw out test grades becuase "the students have never done that before" and after I turned in my grades, she emailed me to say that she doesn't believe students in music, art, or pe should get D's or F's, so she changed those grades to C's. I don't like to give D's or F's - but why should a student who spends most classes in the principal's office or who blatantly refuses to participate get a grade they didn't earn. In addition to all that, I am not allowed to give homework to the K-4 graders - just the 5-8 graders when I only see them 1 day a week. Not only that, but the principal refuses to allow teachers to send homework home on Fridays (the day that I teach). This is all so frustrating and things keep building. When I was hired at the end of August, I was told that students will do a Christmas musical. I found one and had to have it approved by her in September. She takes her time with it and gets back to me saying that students won't be ready in time. Then the week of Veterans Day, she tells me that students will sing just 3 or 4 Christmas carols at Literacy night instead. This gave me 2 - 3 classes to get the students ready. On top of that, she demanded that the students use Orff instruments in this performance (the xylophones, rhythm sticks, tambourines, etc.) and that hasn't even been in my curriculum yet. The students in this school are SO far behind. The 1, 2, 3, and 4th graders cannot read. They can't even spell simple words. It makes it hard for me to teach them. I am trying my hardest to stick to the state's core content guidelines. I know that being a private school they don't have to follow these, but they should at least get the basics. I am not being allowed to teach the basics.
On Tuesday, I received an email from my principal that really sent me over the edge. She said that "we're not making progress in music class and I want to meet with you after school on Friday to discuss next semester's curriculum and get an outline for your monthly lesson plans." If I felt like we weren't making progress or that I was being allowed to make progress, I wouldn't have an issue with this. However, combined with all the other things that have been going on, this really made me angry. I'd been trying to decide about resigning for awhile, but this made my choice clear. I am in the process of typing up my letter of resignation. As much as I will miss the kids (and I truly will miss the kids), I need to think about my health. All of the stress of this stuff has taken a toll on my - I am always tired, I get migraines all the time, I have anxiety attacks, etc. The little bit of money they pay me (I make almost as much subbing) isn't worth it.
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