Friday, October 2, 2015

E-mail Shenanigans

So I had an incredibly stressful week with AP.  I find out at the end of last week that my AP curriculum was not approved by the College Board.  This was news to me.  I go and look in my e-mail and well, well....  There is the rejection e-mail with all the rationales...  in my AP folder.....  from the end of July.  I.... never..... saw..... it.

This is not the first time funny things have happened with our work e-mail.  We know that the tech admin has access.  However, he is to be trusted.  I have had e-mails disappear from my inbox both before and after I read them.  I have not been able to find sent mail, and way before they are automatically deleted.  Others have had the same thing happen to theirs e-mail.

Then there was the confirmation that others have access - people who have no right to access.  One summer, we received an e-mail regarding a new feature with our network system.  I was so excited because this was something I had been looking for for a couple of years.  So I responded to the tech admin - NOT reply all - with a funny excited reply.  Upon leaving the faculty meeting on the first day of school that year, another administrator quotes my e-mail to me in passing.    This is not someone who has a need for access to our e-mails.  Thanks for the tip, buddy.

So now I have a vitally important e-mail regarding my AP class go from inbox to folder without me seeing it.  Hmmm...  I think the shenanigans originated in guidance for reasons I will not go into.

However, I managed to get through this.  Some sweating and sleepless nights later, and my curriculum was finally approved.  But this was a harrowing week.  I originally used other curricula as examples but the tiny details that were asked for were a surprise.  Those details were not in the samples I perused and I have no idea how those curricula were approved.  So I had to submit twice before the final approval came last morning.  To be honest, I do not think any human reads the submissions.  The responses are to rapid.  I think the are run through a program that looks for keywords.  I have a problem with that, but I cannot do anything about it.  Every morning I worked on adjustments....  Worked after school....  Fiddled with wording....  And yesterday?  Approval.  Phew.

With all this spying on our e-mails, one might think that the higher ups would have a bit of a better impression of my work ethic.  But, alas, that is not to be.  Instead, I know that the camera outside of my room is watched when I have a more challenging kid.  This is not just to watch the student in question but also to watch me.  I have been told I should deal with something or other that a kid does when he leaves my room with a bathroom pass.  My response?  Give me supervision to watch my class while I escort my student to the bathroom.  Otherwise, I cannot control what a student does once leaving my room.  Unless a child is on the "no pass" list, this will happen.  Duh.  If the administration insists on giving a pass to the primadonna teachers who reject the more challenging students, DO NOT hassle those of us who gladly take in those kids and manage to actually get them to learn something.  Instead, you should be hassling those primadonnas.  My class should not be a dumping ground for the kids no one wants.  This school should refuse to let a teacher push a kid out by being inflexible and ignoring the IEP.  That behaviour calls for disciplinary action, in my opinion, not cushy rosters and Teacher of the Year awards.

While people all over this country fret over the NSA spying on citizens, I think "Pssh.  The NSA? Hell, I work at PV."

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