New Teacher Orientation

Dear Bloggers,

Here we go! About to commence a new school year! The exciting fresh new start with a new crew entering our classrooms. I am so excited. The smell of new paint, that smell the gym has after the floor has just been lacquered, the piles of new books ready to be opened, new supplies… it’s like Christmas (although our orders haven’t come in yet and we start in less than a week). I am ready to get back to the day-to-day of lesson planning, grading, and work-life routine. (Remind me of this in October when I feel as if summer was a life-time away.)

For the past several weeks, a group of teachers have been diligently preparing training materials for the annual new teacher orientation. I’ve been lending some help along the way. I, along with a few other veterans of the district were asked to present various aspects of our school. My role: the resident Googler setting up new teachers with their accounts and introducing them to our new Chromebooks and Apps accounts.

This year we have a very eclectic crew ranging from seasoned teachers to rookies, special educators, to subject specific, elementary and middle school teachers alike. It’s sad that statistically speaking many of them won’t be back next year, and many may not even continue in this profession. There are even a few that look down right terrified! They are overwhelmed and stressed. We did our best to set them at ease, but just navigating our HUGE building is overwhelming for many at this point. I remember that, and totally understand.


Although many of the aspects of our training went well, there were many parts that the “frustrated” teacher in me came out. You have a small group of teachers that worked their butts off this summer to create an organized, comprehensive, and manageable training - and then you have our new administration come in and flush weeks of hard work down the drain!


First, our principal is late (as he always is)! And we were told not to start without him. So we waited, and waited, and waited while the training leads rearranged their agenda. Then, when he finally graced us with his presence, he begins to ramble on relentlessly about… well, nothing. He must have said over a dozen times that “this [long drawn out lectures] is not what we want you to do in the classroom”. (Do as I say and not as I do.) Then he presented this new lesson plan format that consisted of PAGES of details that caught the veterans completely by surprise. And then continues to ramble on about this new program they will be getting training on later that day. (Which by the way, was NOT in the original agenda) Frustrating? Yep - but that’s only just the beginning.


So next we have our first VP - the disciplinarian. He then, too, rambles on about discipline giving us yet another new policy that the returning staff was unaware of such changes. And never completely finishing a thought saying they’ll learn about this at first day for staff. (My thoughts: so then why bring it up now?) This new policy of his consists burying us in further paperwork. 5 pages of documentation before you can send the kid out of the room. So basically… if a kid curses a teacher out we just have to deal?!?! Ummmm, that’s NOT OK! Not that I’ve ever been cursed out, nor do I really send kids out, but that’s just not fair to the teachers, nor to the other students that have to deal with disruption in their classes, robbing them of a good education. This all in an effort to eliminate suspensions.

Training then commences, at a faster pace than originally anticipated because the new administrators took up half the morning with nonsense. Clearly these teachers were getting overwhelmed so we printed a bunch of how-to’s for later reference, gave them a tour of the building for a break, and sent them on their way to lunch early while we began to regroup.

Now, in the afternoon session, the principal returns to present this new program. One I will not name because we are the only district in the state using it. It is, by far, the LEAST USER FRIENDLY program I have ever seen in my entire life! In fact, when I did the initial training last year, and began to practice using it, I literally had night terrors over it. Basically, it is a tracking system for the student on how they meet the new standards across the board. I personally think it is to track the teachers. (Oh did I mention they used the money for math and literacy coaches to purchase this program for over a hundred thousand dollars the previous year?? - an almost nobody used it!)


After this, the new teachers were more overwhelmed and visibly stressed with this. And hey, none of the returning teachers could blame them.

Next enters the next VP - the head of curriculum. Who proceeds to tell the newbies not to worry about half of the things the principal said and not to worry about this new program or new lesson plan format. Ummmm…. Way to be organized and show a united front administration!


So now what do you listen to? I - being the teacher that follows every rule am having a private anxiety attack and inwardly thinking of where I can send my resume. *&%$# This is going to be a horrible school year with this group of clowns running the building.


Immensely frustrated,

Another Frustrated Teacher