I'm familiar with this situation

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Home : 2002 : April : 18

I'm familiar with this situation
By Ann

I once worked in a situation like yours. I taught fifth grade and had a lot of ADHD and emotionally challenged children. I even had one who was on a suicide watch when she was in fourth grade. She had other problems, too,
which are too detailed to go into here. I don't think I could have had a worse class than I did. I believe that my class was "stacked" because I was a new teacher. Like your principal, my principal was making unfavorable evaluations of me. I, too, was blamed for the behavior problems and was asked to have a mentor (which was insulting, since I was not a first year, but a tenth year

teacher). The mentor came into my classroom to point out what I was doing "wrong." She criticized me and my lesson plans, although I had always previously had good evaluations and classes (I had moved from another state). I was stressed out beyond belief, because of the horrible class and no support. I saw the writing on the wall, and realized that I was going to get out while the getting out was good. I knew that I would eventually get the axe, so I decided that I just wasn't going to stress out anymore. It was quite a relief to me when I put in my letter of resignation.

Funny thing that you mentioned Wal-Mart. I didn't go to work there, but I did go to work in a department store for awhile at the mall after I quit. People from the school where I worked came in and said "hello" and told me about the horrible things that were going on in my ex-class. I just smiled at them. The only difference between you and me, I guess, is that I didn't allow the nightmare to continue.