Change in Plans

This is not the post I had in mind for this evening. There has been a change in plans.

Throughout the school year I have been, for lack of a better phrase, "picked on," by my principal. I'm not sure why, but the man has had something against me from day one. He has done nothing but criticize (and not constructively) the things I'm doing in what I thought was suppose to be MY classroom. There doesn't seem to be any way I can please him; I cannot seem to do anything right in his eyes. He does not like the lessons I'm doing nor does he agree with my grading system. He has made me make changes that were against what I believed in as an educator (changes that appalled other math teachers when I told them about the situation) and recommends other changes that just don't make sense or contradict something he told me at a different point in time. One day he'll tell me that I need to make the class easier because I have too many students with below-average grades (students that are doing poorly in all of their other classes as well and that earned those poor grades by not trying) and the next day, like today, he's telling me that I'm not challenging my students enough. As a former math teacher, he tells me what he did in his classroom and states that I should do those things. What he doesn't seem to realize is that I don't teach all the same classes or the same students that he had. My job as a math teacher is completely different than his job was as a math teacher. What he also doesn't seem to realize is that he doesn't know everything that goes on in my classroom even though he thinks he does by simply walking by in the hallways and sitting in for a couple of "formal" observations. I have received nothing by negative feedback from this man and it has made my school year extremely uncomfortable. I really like teaching (despite what many who hear me complain might think), I adore the students, I enjoy the other teachers. I don't like my boss. I don't enjoy feeling like a horrible employee and a worthless teacher.

I'm leaving this school after my contract is up in May. I'm not even sure I'll continue with teaching after this . . .

There has been a change in plans.