Stupid Co-Workers

Let me first start by saying that in general, I love most of the people that I work with. I'd call them my friends. There are some people that I just tolerate and accept that I can't change them and I just need to wait til they retire or I leave. Then there are some people who just really piss me off.

So my boss comes into my classroom this morning and tells me I need to talk to the other teacher that I share a block of kids with. He says that there is some "confusion" from the kids over who needs to sign their high school schedules. I told him, "There isn't confusion, I told the kids yesterday that BOTH of their teachers had to sign approval." He just says, make sure I communicate with the other teacher. I condescendingly say, "Okay...." I hate it when he won't just come out and say what the problem is! What the crap is with "principal politics"? He can never just come out and say what's wrong and that's so DUMB!!!!!!

So then I'm talking with another teacher in my grade that teaches English and we're talking about approving College Prep English for kids. I told her that there are some kids who I didn't approve because they have terrible grades even though they're capable of the CP work. They just refuse to participate or do work. She got on her high horse and said that it was a hard call to make and we should probably be signing those kids into CP English so that they were at least absorbing the information. I argued that they weren't going to do any work and they were a waste of a seat and they might as well fail General English if they're not going to do anything. I told her what a waste of time it was from personal experience to have to deal with those kids in that classroom. It just creates more work for that teacher. She kind of got all stuffy with me and said, "You're assuming things work the same in this district as your old one. And the only thing you're changing is the teacher who has to do the extra work. Now the general room is full of kids who don't work. Teachers need to learn they can't always stay in their comfort zone. We have to do what's best for the kids."

What I wanted to reply back was, "You've never taught anything BUT 8th grade, so how would you know anything about high school politics. Furthermore, what's best for the kids is if they're not going to work in either room, what's the point of adding a kid to CP who's going to fail and poison a good classroom?" I refrained from any of this and simply said, "I disagree". Nothing's going to change this co-worker's opinion. She stands on her soap box much too often for my taste. While I think she's an effective teacher, I think she's reaching the time where she needs to retire.