I have trouble with my feet. It is documented and I have a doctor’s note on file that I be allowed to sit down periodically. Apparently, although this is known by my assistant principal, that does not mean I should ever be sitting behind my desk. Here are some emails I have received recently.
Mr. Belliveau,
Please reference the e-mails below that I sent you on March 24 and March 16. When I visited yesterday, March 26, I observed you sitting behind your computer when I walked in. I also observed your students working on a latin root word test that consisted of approximately 30 multiple choice questions. When I read your agenda for class that day, I noticed the only items on the agenda were the root word test and for your students to read for 30 minutes. As I’ve stated below on two different occasions, it is the expectation of the administration for you to be up, engaged with your students, monitoring your students, and for your students to be engaged with you. Again, . I am aware of the doctor’s note you have on file that allows you to have periodic breaks which we have no problem honoring. In the event you need a break, however, we would like to see you sitting on a stool at a student’s desk helping them. Also, it is the expectation of the administration for you to have more engaging activities on your class agenda than just a 30 question multiple choice test with 30 minutes of in class reading time. The reading and the test are both appropriate instructional items, but we want and expect to see more. If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know.
Thank you,
Phenix City Intermediate School
Assistant Principal
From:
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2014 2:32 PM
To: Belliveau,Art
Subject: Visit
Mr. Belliveau,
When I visited your room twice today I observed you sitting at your desk behind your computer both times I entered. Please remember the administration expects you to be up, monitoring your room, your students engaged with you, and you engaged with your students anytime we enter. We also expect this engagement level to occur from bell to bell each class each day. I am aware of the doctor’s note you have on file that allows you to have periodic breaks which we have no problem honoring. In the event you need a break, however, we would like to see you sitting on a stool at a student’s desk helping them.
Thank you,
Phenix City Intermediate School
Assistant Principal
From March 16:
Mr. Belliveau,
During my visit today I noticed your class schedule was for students to review their Greek/Latin route words, test on these words, and then read for thirty minutes. I appreciate your commitment to increasing the vocabulary and reading levels of our students. In the future, however, I would like to see a few more meaningful and engaging activities for your students other than just quiz and read. The schedule today seemed to be extremely slow where pacing is concerned.
Thank you,
Phenix City Intermediate School
Assistant Principal
I need to say that in many, many regards my assistant principal is a really good guy. This year is the first time in a long time I have heard consistent positive messages about my teaching from an administrator. I think that a lot of this comes from the new interim superintendent, who has described his leadership style as “MBWA: Management By Walking Around.” From him comes the expectation that teachers will be on their feet teaching all day every day.
The administrators at school level have all been directed to adopt this management style and be in the classrooms as much as possible. These four visits over two weeks is him following that directive. I sent him a reply and, because I honestly respect this man, I worked extra hard to remove snark and sarcasm. I did, however, want to make sure my side of the story was getting on the record as well.
I also think it is puzzling that after this particular administrator has singled me out for praise on my ability to get my students to read, that he feels that SSR time is not a productive use of class time.
Mr. ,
I have received your email about your visit to my third period class on 3/26/14. I do have some points I would like to make to clarify what you wrote to me.
It was not a thirty question test, as you stated, but a fifty question, major grade test. I feel that giving the students adequate time to review beforehand and take the test are important. As some students take longer to test than others, some have taken the entire period in the past, I left the after activities as something they could work on by themselves. It was not, as you stated, 30 minutes of SSR. Although SSR is a research-based method of increasing a student’s comprehension and fluency, and therefore something I think is very valuable to schedule classtime for, I had another after activity for them to do that day since in your last email you told me that was inappropriate use of classtime. They had reading material on dinosaur extinction theories to read in preparation for research we began the next day. By having time to read that in class the day before, we had more time to do research. This was written in the “After” section of my BDA.
In the class you visited I had nine students. This is my inclusion class and the rest were testing with Mrs. Gibson in her room. I had the students spread out throughout the class to keep them from being able to look at one another’s papers. Previous to your entering my room I had made several loops to see that there was nothing they could use to cheat on or near them. After having established that I sat down behind my desk for the first time since I got to school that day. My feet were in extreme pain and I needed to relieve them. As this was a small class, working independently on a test, I felt that I could take a few minutes to sit down. Further, as this was a test, I did not feel it appropriate to sit by a student and help them.
After you left, we graded the tests as a class. Then, as we had the time and this is a group of struggling readers, I read the extinction theories handout to them as they followed along reading at their desks. This enabled me to answer any questions they had about the material.
I am interested to see where this goes from here...
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