Principal's Office

The most dreaded place in a school.

I had the fortune to visit it twice this past week.  

The first time:

"Ms. P, are you okay?  You seem so frustrated.  I just wanted to make sure that everything is going okay."

"It's not.  Nothing is okay.  Late last night you told me that I would be watching the 6,7, 8th graders for four hours because the rest of the middle school teachers would be out for a PD.  How do you expect me to come up with something for them to do last minute?  So I put on a movie.  You didn't like that. But there was nothing more that I could have done.  There's no communication in this building."

"Well Ms. P there will be surprises but you have to make the most of them.  Things will come up and you have to be flexible."

"I'm trying.  But I feel that there are way to many surprises in this building.  I just want to make sure that we have some sort of plan before going into next year so we aren't constantly trying to be flexible for every surprise that hits us."

"We can plan all we want but I can't promise you that there won't be any surprises.  There's always surprises."

"Okay."

"You good anything else?"

"Yea we have to do something with all this negative student behavior."

"What do you mean?"

"We had a student bring in a switchblade yesterday and she tried concealing it...and she's back again today?"

"Well let's see."  

Takes out student code of conduct.

"If we look at this it says that..."

I stopped listening.

"I feel unsafe in my classroom.  I fear the safety of my students."

"I see.  I understand."

I realized nothing was going to change. 

"I have to go."

"Okay Ms. P I just want you to know that if you are ever feeling frustrated you can always come to me and we can hash it out right here in this office."

So I was feeling a little frustrated yesterday.   So I went to go "hash it out".  

The second time:

"I need you to be like her (pointing at the principal from the other school who was in the hallway dealing with student behavior)."

"What?"

"I needed you today in my classroom.  Not the dean."

"Hold up.  Come into the office.  First and foremost that is not how you talk to  your boss."

"I'm sorry but I needed you today."

"I have to do things.  I'm a principal.  I have meetings and due dates.  You can't tell me to be like another principal.   I don't tell you that I need you to be like another teacher and I'm your boss."

"I'm sorry but I need you to take care of that 7th grade class."

"I will. (looks down at the list that he was making)"

"Okay thanks whenever you have the time."

I walk out.  Later I find out that he was in his office all day.  He wasn't in any meetings.  I also noticed that after I had this conversation with him he decided to walk up and down the stairs and visited classrooms.  He did his job. 

I cried the rest of the day.  I had another teacher take over my last class and I emailed my coach.  I didn't want to come back next year.  She told me to think about it.  

My students found out I was crying.  They thought I had been fired.  They started yelling at one another.  "Look what you guys did!"  This is all your fault! Now she's leaving us!" "I'm going right down to see that principal and making sure she doesn't leave!"  

The 7th grade girl that I had sent out that day came rushing in and apologized and told me that everything would be okay.   She never does that.

They can be complete assholes to me whenever they want, but the minute someone else is an asshole to me they have a problem.

I can't help but smile. 

-Ms. P