PTCs are coming!

RUN!!!!

That is seriously what my first instinct is when it comes to Parent-Teacher Conferences. I absolutely H*A*T*E* them. With. A. Passion. Yes, it is a necessary evil, but I still despise them. Here at the school, they have teachers spend the entire afternoon plus part of the evening (from 1-7:30pm) having to sit and wait for parents--most of whom you don't need to talk with--come and "talk". Most of the time, it is more about what "I" am doing wrong as a teacher since their student can't do anything wrong in their eyes. I have more students who have to have Court appointed (yes, as in legal Court) grades monitoring otherwise back to Detention Lock-Up for them so I'm thinking that'll I'll be seeing a few of those people around.

The one thing that I don't like is the fact that we don't get a break during that long stretch. No scheduled break. If you need to use the restroom or need to get up and walk around, you've got to find a time that you don't have a bunch of people waiting and sneak off. And then you can only be gone for a few minutes and have to leave a sign stating when you are coming back. Yeah. It's like that.

We also have a new vice-principal here at the school. . . that is not someone I want to work with. I guess I was spoiled with having a fantastic Vice last year; one who actually cared about what the teachers thought and how they were doing and what could he do to better their situation with students/parents/anything really. This vice was sent to us from the high school--where they didn't want him anymore--and now we're stuck with him. I'm thinking that if enough of the faculty have evidence that he isn't supporting or doing his job, perhaps we can get him sent away next year? He just isn't helpful or wanting to be helpful. Reason I'm bringing this up is last year with PTCs, the Vice and the Principal went around with treats for each of the teachers, making sure that they were okay and if there were any problems that needed to be addressed. They also made sure that the teachers were taking a break when they needed to. I can't see that happening this year with the way this new guy is. We'll see on Thursday, but I can't see it.

Believe me, I'll be giving a play-by-play of what is going on with my PTCs. I'm not expecting too much since I don't give out extra credit for attending--yes, some teachers actually do that and now more and more parents are expecting that their student get extra credit for doing something that I think is required as a parent if you are going to stay on top of what your student is doing.

This could be interesting.