How I Ended Up In the Dungeon Part 2

I spend the summer of 2006 refreshing my memory and brushing up on my photo skills.  Sister had a more recent version of Photoshop, and that kept me busy.  I also had a copy of the previous curriculum - basically useful as toilet paper at most.  I was on my own.  But I have always worked fine on my own.  Most of my other jobs were solitary and I was able to run the show with no interference.

I had three sections of Photography and I also had Yearbook and maybe Foundations of Art - I can't remember.  I went in to set the room up and unpack my order.  The pace was a hoarder's disaster.  There were Kodak paper boxes almost as old as I was, piled to the ceiling.  How any of this passed fire code was beyond me.  I needed extra hands.  My mother and hubby came in to help.  We worked all day.  I cleaned the place of obvious garbage - the man and I were still sharing the room.

The year starts off well.  I used the desk in that room - he used a desk/office area across the hall, which was now his main classroom.  Everything seemed hunky dory.  The kids wanted a second level of Photo.  I proposed it and wrote the curriculum.  The following year I had five sections.  I received word that they needed more sections due to demand.  I had dome my job as told - fix the program.  I thought I was OK.

Then intra-department issues.  Money for supplies is allocated to departments.  When Photo was moved to the Art Department,  the Business and Technology Department lost that money.  My program was not taking any money from the art budget.  Our budget grew because of the reallocation of money.  However, there was a belief that my program was taking money away from the other art classes.  I had the figures.  I showed all involved parties.  Meetings were tense.  I was on my own.  While half the department knew the facts, when I would be attacked in the meetings, I was left to defend myself.  Others knew that my program was not taking money form others, but no one spoke up to defend me.  The irony that the individuals who were involved in the decision to move me to photo were now angry with the success of the program was not lost on me.

However, I was having the time of my life.  I was meeting and working with some crazy talented kids.  The darkroom was a magical place.  Then this happened in October of 2006:

I was in the middle room helping students out as they came out of the darkroom.  The other guy needed a water source and his kids would cross the hall to use the photo sinks.  Sometimes what they were dumping would get in the print wash, but I said nothing, just quickly swooshed that liquid to the drain.  Then I come out from helping someone and find him advising one of my students.  Now, I - and a couple of colleagues - have no qualms about having kids get advice from others.  However, we do not give advice unsolicited.  That is stepping on the other teacher's expertise.

I called him out into the hall and asked what he was doing and asked that he please not advise my students because I am their teacher.  His reply was "Well, you don't know what you are doing."  within earshot of the kids.  He also said the students did not know what they were doing.  Except I had a file full of the past work from his classes.  I knew the quality of the work done by kids who had him as a teacher.  I have abysmal self esteem, but I was confident that my kids were on the right path.

So I e-mailed my department head about this incident.

To be continued....