“I just got my final observation by Ms. Coen, and Grandma James wasn’t there so that made it a little interesting. It starts with Ryden snickering because I went to the trouble of putting real student names in the word problems. Each time I read the word problem out loud, he’d laugh when I came to someone’s name. I hurried up the lesson knowing that my score would be docked but I refused to let Ryden get another student upset, and then sabotage the whole thing. I handed out the work. I rushed out with Ryden in hand, passed him to principal Franklin, who happened to be walking the hallway, he took him to CHOICE and then I’m was back on my game. They got started quietly because I think they knew it was a big deal with Ms. Coen in the room. Then, I started shuffling them into stations. I rarely did math stations, but I knew Coen loved them. While everyone was doing their work, I kept on glancing at the clock, hoping that nothing catastrophic was going to happen. Fifteen minutes left, ten minutes left, whew it’s been forty-five minutes! Why is she still here!? That’s how all my observations go. I just hold my breath… expecting the worst. Fortunately, nothing tragic happened and Coen was all smiles, “I’m so proud of you Mr. Slaughter. You have really turned it around. They are all on task! And doing multiplication! They are doing problems the third graders can’t handle. Great work!” Ms. Coen was the first one to interview me for Daley, and after two hellacious years, finally, she was smiling.”
Two years of almost complete devastation and just as I was walking down the halls through the front double doors, once again, I could hear the soft whisper, “See, you are special. It took you two years, but now you’ve got it. You can’t leave now!” But I had done the job, and now I had to walk away and leave it be. And I did.
1 comment:
I am so glad you could finish on a high note--with everything that came out at the end of it all, I don't see failure at all. I hope you return to the classroom at some point..maybe some 3rd world country where the kids will be so thankful just to have a teacher to teach them.
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