To Teach or Not to Teach I shared my story with Dr. Westguard. I told him the Milwaukee School District recruiter made an agreement with me to teach Biology at North Division High School during his visit to Sioux City, Iowa. I informed him of the change in my teaching contract from North Division HIghSchool to Roosevelt Junior High School and how it happened. I told him that until that morning, no one had informed me of the change, including the Principal from North Division HS who had been watching me cleaning for four days. Dr. Westguard said he wanted to check into the situation. He asked me if I could return to his office later that afternoon. I returned to his office after the orientation session to find Dr. Westguard and Bob Grogan present. Dr. Westguard first had Bob Grogan apologize for lying to me. Then he asked me if I would accept a science teaching position at Roosevelt Junior High School (RJHS). He said with my four years of teaching science, I would meet their need for an experienced science teacher at this school. He asked me to visit the school and then let him know what it would take for me to accept the Roosevelt assignment. I asked him if there were any another other biology positions open in the district. Bob Grogan said there were no high school science positions but there were two Junior High School science positions still open. They both said they really wanted an experienced teacher to teach science at Roosevelt. Roosevelt Junior High School I went over to Roosevelt Junior High School, and met the Principal, Mr. Perleberg. He showed me the science room, and the science storage area. There was no laboratory. I asked him about equipment, materials, textbooks and library books relating to science. He share the inventory list. It was pathetic. There was very little equipment and most of that was broken or dirty, no materials and not enough textbooks for each student. Worse, there was not enough textbooks to share from one classroom to the next. There were no science resource books of any kind for the classroom or in the Library. I should have asked about the number of classes and number of students per class at that point, but I didn’t. Next, I talked to Mr. Madison, the head of the science division at Roosevelt. He said he complained about the lack of funds to purchase books and other resources, but complaining about it didn’t do any good. The next day was a workday for teachers so they could get their classrooms ready for the opening of the new school year. I spent most of the day and evening going through the science storeroom cleaning equipment and the few organizing materials. What I found was worse than North Division High School. Near the end of the day, I made a list of “demands” for Dr. Westguard and Bob Grogan. If they wanted me to teach at Roosevelt, they had to meet my requests. My list included: • Basic set of lab equipment for life science and physical science • Materials for lab work to be conducted at the students desks • Money and transportation for field trips along with permission to take each class on a one day field trips any time I wanted to take the kids out of the school. • Enough money to buy science books for each child, classroom reading material and library books I felt I needed. The next morning I met with The Assistant Superintendent and Bob Grogan. They agreed to everything on my list except I was limited to one field trip, per class per month, maximum. He also put a cap on the amount of funds he would allocate for textbooks. The he added. “If there was anything else I needed for my students, I was to ask him. He complemented me for not asking for anything for myself. Mr. Grogan had nothing to say during the entire meeting. It appeared that Dr. Westguard was going to be my advocate. Next: Roosevelt Junior High School My Class assignments.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 15:50:06 +0000
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