struggling to find routine

"Welcome to Memphis City Schools..."


I'm pretty sure I've heard that phrase uttered at least a few dozen times in the last few weeks. Rookies and veterans alike within the district recognize that the district is inefficient, confused about direction, and lacking in vision. I'll recount one example that has hit close to home.

I think I've written about the 41 million dollar deficit, and the drastic moves the new superintendent has had to make in lieu of this scarcity of resources. One decision was to eliminate 120 teaching jobs in the district. The proposed system was based on seniority, whereby teachers that were "surplused" could then "bump" teachers with less seniority, effectively replacing them and rendering them jobless. Needless to say, my housemates and I were a bit nervous about job security. A couple weeks ago I came home to find my roommate Bill chilling on the couch with a silly grin. Yes, he was bumped, though not by someone with more seniority. In fact, the district decided to bump him, and replace him with another TFA corps member who had been previously surplused. Who knows why, but I guarantee that student achievement is not part of the answer. By the way, Bill did end up getting another job at another school a week later.

...welcome to Memphis City Schools...

Being part of a district with such low numbers, particularly one that has a new superintendent, I'm constantly subject to no shortage of district mandates. The bureaucracy is obscenely stifling. When you add up all the time that I'm "required" to do my reading and math intervention, on top of the baseline requisite time for all the content areas, there's not enough time in the day! You can't just say, "OK, you're required to do 30 minutes of this and 20 minutes of this. Go." Where does the time come from? There's also this huge emphasis on improving the image of MCS, which basically equates to me having to put up a dog and pony show on the bulletin board outside my door, to make it look like my students are capable of creative, quality work. So I went ahead and put up half of the class's work, which I edited and typed myself after they had edited it twice!

That example just scratches the surface of all the things teachers end up having to do and are expected to do (on top of actually teaching). Today I spent 25$ to buy air fresheners, after feedback from my principal's observation that I needed to a) give my students a hygiene lesson and b) invest in some air fresheners. To be fair, it reeks in there. People step in the doorway and their forehead immediately wrinkles. Yesterday it took almost 5 minutes for the all-girls class to simmer down from the bad smell after they entered my class for math. Part of it is cultural -- I believe my Burundian students have different habits for personal hygiene.

Behind my desk - where I'm putting up some student work.

Today I was informed by the principal that my subjects are now changing. Starting on Monday I'm going to add Writing and either Science or Social Studies to my current charge of Math and Reading. Although, I respect the rationale for this change, these decisions really should have been made before the year started. I knew coming into this school that the principal was prone to making these kinds of changes throughout the year, but I had no idea that I would have my subjects changed twice in the first 7 weeks of school! I'm debating whether or not to tell my Program Director about my new subjects, because of all the long term planning documents I will have to now submit and the tracking she will want for my new subjects.

My conduct chart and list of objectives. I'm working on my handwriting...

At this point I'm just trying to survive. I take one day at a time, and I try to focus on improving bit by bit. I submitted my grades today for the first six weeks. 5 more to go.



I bought a basil plant. I like it alot.

Here are some more photos...