I'm taking flack from one of my superiors for a couple emails I wrote.
First the background: Our district has an English Language Center, like in many disrticts, for absolute beginners in English, so that they can get intensive English instruction for a period of time until they are better prepared to be thrust into mainstream classes at their base schools.
Well, at my two high schools I have several students who have been waiting in limbo for several weeks for services to begin at the center. The center was supposed to have secured a new teacher this year, but it hasn't, and I'm told now, won't. After the long wait, students are now to be placed in regular classes at their base school. Naturally, this has a big imppact on the students, their subject area teachers, and me.
So I, in what I thought was a responsible and professional gesture, sent communication by email to the two principals , the affected teachers, registrars, and counselors, to keep them abreast of the situation, and recommend how to appropriately place students in classes now that we know they would not be going to the english language center after all.
Here is the text of the first email:
Dr. XXXXXX,
I spoke with XXXXX, director of the English Language Center, yesterday about the status of the acquisition of a teacher for high school students at ELC. He informed me that it looked like there may not be a teacher at all this year.
This would mean that those three students that we have at Mays--who are currently shadowing another student to classes--probably will not be going to the ELC at all. So we will have to schedule them into classes at Mays. I will gladly work with their counselor, to whom I have copied this message as well, to recommend which courses might be most appropriate for each student based on the student's current language proficiency level.
This is a regrettable situation, and is least beneficial to the students, who would be best served receiving intensive English instruction before they are mainstreamed. Unfortunately, we appear not to have any other option.
Please let me know if this is the course of action you would like to take.
Well apparently, this message offended my district director, to whom I cc'ed the email, believing she also would want to be aware of how I was addressing the situation, and that she might have something to add or offer as far as a options. Well, instead, she seems to have taken email personally. So she replied, copying to both principals, saying "Mr. Wickersham for the number of students you are serving, you have more than enough time to accommodate all of the students you have at XXXX and at XXXXX (the schools)...... If your numbers have changed please let me know". Which has nothing to do with the intent of my email message. She seems to think I was complaining or criticizing her or something. Well, I replied back, copying the principals as well, to explain that what I intended was just to keep the involved parties informed, and apologize if my meaning was misconstrued.
My reply: You're right, Ms. XXXXX. If it sounded like I was assigning blame or making excuses I apologize. That was not my intent. I am merely trying to keep the principals abreast of the situation, let them and you know that someone is working on it, and make it clear that I sympathize with those teachers who will now have to learn how to accommodate the students. The drawback that I was referring to is that the non-English speaking students will be mainstreamed in science, social studies, and math classes, which as we know is not easy for them or the teachers. Again, if the intent of my message was not clear, I apologize. Be assured that I am and will serve these students to the fullest degree possible.
Well, after resceduling the students into a permanent schedule of classes at one school, I sent another email message to the teachers in whose class they had been placed, basically to let them know that I was there to suppport them. Copied it to the director as well. (obviously didn't learn from the first time.) And this one seriously pissed her off.
Here's the text of that email:
Dear Teachers:
Yesterday and today you received three students newly into your class: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX(names of students). These three young men are beginning ESOL students who as yet understand very limited English. The situation is that they were supposed to have been bused to the APS English Language Center for the larger part of each day for the year, in order to build a base in the language before being mainstreamed into classes.
Unfortunately, after a long period of waiting, we were informed that there would be no service for high school students at the center this year. As a result, these students have just now been placed into a full schedule of classes here at Mays.
Up to this point they had been shadowing another student to classes. In scheduling, the attempt was made to place them with the same teachers whose classes they were visiting, but due to space, this was not possible in all cases. You may retrieve any work the students may have done in those classes from the following teachers:
Algebra I -- XXXXXXX
Citizenship -- XXXXXX
Personal Fitness -- XXXXXX
I am available to assist these students with their assignments in your classes, as well as for consultation on how to modify lessons to accomodate their level of language proficiency. Please let me know how I can help. I will make an effort to stop by your room and speak in person in the next couple of days. (I am at Mays on 1-3-5-7 days in the mornings until about 11:00)
Thank you for your patience and understanding in this situation. I look forward to speaking with you in person.
I got a call from the director's secretary, who said the director was very upset, that I should stop sending emails, and that she would want to have a one-on-one conference with me to discuss it. Oh and also that "the reason your students are staying at the home school and not going to the center is because the small number you have allows you time to serve them with their having to go to the center." Of course, this is the first time I had heard this, and this was October 1. School opened on August 9. The classes at the Center were due to begin on August 23rd. From August 23 through September 23rd, I was repeatedly told that at the center they were waiting for a teacher to be released from her current position to be able to begin serving high school students at the center. This of course is what I communicated to parents, principals and affected teachers at both schools. On Sept 23 I was finally told by the director of the school at teh center (a different person) "I don't think there is going be a teacher this year for high school students"
Now I'm being told that the reason the students are not going to the center is because of my low numbers? Yeah, I don't have to say it--bull.
Anyway, I haven't had my little one-on-one with the director yet, but I'm going to go into it with both confidence and humility. On the one hand, I know and will maintain that it was appropriate for me to communicate with people, and desire to keep them informed of the situation. I also can stand behind the fact that I was making every effort to accommodate the "waiting period" by working out a temporary situation--haveing those students shadow someone to classes. On the other hand, I will express to this director that I can see how she (being nuts) would take my emails a different way and I will be careful of the phrasing I choose in the future.
Still, it is crap that she would come up with this new story now. Here parents, principals, teachers are being told, "we're waiting on a teacher, thanks for your patience..." etc. and nobody is communicating with me from the district ESOL dept. unless I call there and inquire. And now the students are having to be placed sink or swim into high school courses, where the teachers either lack training in how to accommodate ESOL students, or more truly, don't have time with their large class loads to give the personal attention necessary. They'll survive. But I still wish they could get the best, most equitable educationn possible given thier needs, and that they had not been treated like crap in the process. Their counselor made a good point in saying that if the students were of any other population they would have been treated differently because the parents would be up in arms and the district could have a potential lawsuit on their hands. But because these parents are not aware of thier rights, the students don't get equal treatment.
Whew. Sorry for such a long entry. If you made it this far, you are a true friend.
11:19:19 PM 
|
