My CW just had a breakdown.

[sugarbear]

We team-teach 7th and 8th grade (2 classes in each grade; we each have one class for English and Social Studies, but we plan all of our curriculum together).

She hates her 7th grade class this year. They are really difficult. And we had a super frustrating meeting this morning (about note-taking), during which 10 other teachers dumped a ton of new curriculum into our class. I feel really bad for her, and I tried to tell her to be breezy. Then I tried to help her with strategies to build a better community in her class. Then I just let her cry.

I feel bad, on one hand. On the other, I kind of want to tell her to suck it up.

[shostakovich]

That sounds rough, I'm sorry .

I'm a little confused, though - why are the other teachers able to dump new curriculum off on you guys? Don't the two of you as a cohort decide what curriculum to teach? I'm not in the education field, so forgive my ignorance on the subject.

[angelaa73]

If i had to teach 7th and 8th, i would be (and I am not kidding) the strictest, most militant bitch-faced pillar of salt maker out there

[aprilsails]

I always liked coaching and training middle schoolers. That being said, I never had to deal with them for longer than 2 weeks or while teaching them something that they hadn't signed up for.

Kudos to you for managing so well. Hopefully she'll come in fresh faced for Monday morning.

[sugarbear]

Nov 8, 2013 12:34:23 GMT -5 shostakovich said:

That sounds rough, I'm sorry .

I'm a little confused, though - why are the other teachers able to dump new curriculum off on you guys? Don't the two of you as a cohort decide what curriculum to teach? I'm not in the education field, so forgive my ignorance on the subject.

Well, they tried. We were talking about different note-taking methodologies and how we should be teaching several and allowing the kids to choose. The other teachers wanted us to teach each strategy in humanities, but really they should be taught across the curriculum. We'll push back on this, but we ran out of time to get into it this morning.

[snickers]

Teachers in middle school deserve a special award, because damn, that's a tough job.

[jenny1223]

Teaching middle school has got to be one of the toughest jobs out there. Kudos to you. I would also be comforting CW, but totally thinking, "suck it up."

[sugarbear]

Nov 8, 2013 12:35:45 GMT -5 angelaa73 said:

If i had to teach 7th and 8th, i would be (and I am not kidding) the strictest, most militant bitch-faced pillar of salt maker out there

I love it. I really, really do. We teach at an independent school, in a very affluent community. The kids are well-behaved (at least, relatively) and invested in their educations (mostly), but with more money comes more-- and different-- problems.

I have a great rapport with my students, and I've been teaching for much longer than she has, but I have had classes that I just didn't mesh well with, too. It's hard.

[janetplanet20]

I teach 8th grade this year and looped up with my 7th graders from last year. I had a challenging year last year and am repeating it again this year since i have the sane kids. i feel for your co-worker; Middle school is rough! You're a good friend to let her cry and vent.

Why are other teachers dumping curriculum on you guys?

[pixelpassion]

Seriously, you deserve a medal. One of my close friends is a middle school teacher and the constant adding news things to the curriculum drives her BSC

[sugarbear]

Nov 8, 2013 12:47:31 GMT -5 tators said:

If this is her first break down you should cut her some slack. Teaching is the suck sometimes- you know:) if however she does it regularly- tell her to suck it up. I want to kill the freshman I have right now.

Definitely her first. I LOVE working with her and I think she's really great at what she does. I don't fault her a bit for the breakdown; I just don't really know what to tell her other than, "yeah, sometimes this really sucks, but here are things I might do to help..."

We talked about having a class meeting and letting her 7th graders determine their classroom norms. I think, sometimes, they need to know that we are human and get frustrated. I tell my kids all the time that I do this because it's fun for me, and if I'm not having fun, ain't no one having fun.

[janetplanet20]

Nov 8, 2013 12:45:47 GMT -5 pixelpassion said:

Seriously, you deserve a medal. One of my close friends is a middle school teacher and the constant adding news things to the curriculum drives her BSC

My principal is the queen of adding new things. We planned a reading fair/book report project for this year. Planned it and presented it to the other English teachers in early October. We've assigned it to our students and had them working on it for the past 2-3 weeks. Many kids are done reading their books. My principal emailed me yesterday and said she wanted to change the purpose of the project now. :/

[game blouses]

I love teaching 8th but 7th can be so crappy. This time of year is tough too. Show her this - it gets better!

[pixelpassion]

Nov 8, 2013 12:50:48 GMT -5 janetplanet20 said:

Nov 8, 2013 12:45:47 GMT -5 pixelpassion said:

Seriously, you deserve a medal. One of my close friends is a middle school teacher and the constant adding news things to the curriculum drives her BSC

My principal is the queen of adding new things. We planned a reading fair/book report project for this year. Planned it and presented it to the other English teachers in early October. We've assigned it to our students and had them working on it for the past 2-3 weeks. Many kids are done reading their books. My principal emailed me yesterday and said she wanted to change the purpose of the project now. :/

Duuude, that's messed up. I hope you guys (you and your students) haven't just wasted your time. Hopefully the idea that your principal has in mind can be somehow worked into the current state of the project. 

[sugarbear]

Nov 8, 2013 12:51:50 GMT -5 game blouses said:

I love teaching 8th but 7th can be so crappy. This time of year is tough too. Show her this - it gets better!

This is awesome!

[sugarbear]

Nov 8, 2013 12:53:49 GMT -5 pixelpassion said:

Nov 8, 2013 12:50:48 GMT -5 janetplanet20 said:

My principal is the queen of adding new things. We planned a reading fair/book report project for this year. Planned it and presented it to the other English teachers in early October. We've assigned it to our students and had them working on it for the past 2-3 weeks. Many kids are done reading their books. My principal emailed me yesterday and said she wanted to change the purpose of the project now. :/

Duuude, that's messed up. I hope you guys (you and your students) haven't just wasted your time. Hopefully the idea that your principal has in mind can be somehow worked into the current state of the project. 

OMG. So not cool. Can the new idea be worked into the project? Could you do a second cycle of the project and say, "hey, Bloom's Taxonomy, now that you've done this once, we're going on step further because YOU CAN!" Or something like that?
I'm so glad that our director stays out of our curriculum. SO GLAD.

[janetplanet20]

Nov 8, 2013 12:55:21 GMT -5 sugarbear said:

Nov 8, 2013 12:53:49 GMT -5 pixelpassion said:

Duuude, that's messed up. I hope you guys (you and your students) haven't just wasted your time. Hopefully the idea that your principal has in mind can be somehow worked into the current state of the project. 

OMG. So not cool. Can the new idea be worked into the project? Could you do a second cycle of the project and say, "hey, Bloom's Taxonomy, now that you've done this once, we're going on step further because YOU CAN!" Or something like that?
I'm so glad that our director stays out of our curriculum. SO GLAD.

She didn't say what her new idea is and I'm out today so I'm not sure yet. My plan is to see what she has to say and try to make it work, but also explain that it's not really fair to the kids to change the assignment mid-stream.

[Deleted]

Once in a while it's ok to break down. I've had break downs at work, in the bathroom of course, then I get up, dust myself off, and get back to work. Sometimes the emotional release really helps.

[sugarbear]

Nov 8, 2013 12:58:38 GMT -5 janetplanet20 said:

Nov 8, 2013 12:55:21 GMT -5 sugarbear said:

OMG. So not cool. Can the new idea be worked into the project? Could you do a second cycle of the project and say, "hey, Bloom's Taxonomy, now that you've done this once, we're going on step further because YOU CAN!" Or something like that?
I'm so glad that our director stays out of our curriculum. SO GLAD.

She didn't say what her new idea is and I'm out today so I'm not sure yet. My plan is to see what she has to say and try to make it work, but also explain that it's not really fair to the kids to change the assignment mid-stream.

Hopefully it's not too bad. I agree that it's one thing to place more expectations on the teacher, but to change the way the kids have to do something, midstream, is totally unfair.

[iamgrace]

I love teaching grade 7. I did teach in a very sheltered community with very strong parental support, so I might feel otherwise if I had to teach somewhere else.