Another Man Down

Where is the support for us newbies?

A couple of weeks ago, I found out that a fellow colleague was leaving my site several weeks before school ended. I was somewhat shocked to hear about his dilemma, but at the same time I was reminded off all the bullshit that new teachers can go through in their first years of teaching especially if they don't have someone in their corner to guide and support them. So what happened to my fellow co-worker?

Well, he was given the shittiest kids to work with all year long, he didn't have the support of administration, and he was not given a chance to prove himself as a teacher before he was forced to resign. Many of his kids were failing and he was struggling to gain control of his students/classes, and I know this because he came to me several times asking for advice. I tried to help out as much as I could, but it's very tough for new teachers to get by when those in charge (our administration) don't follow through with consequences (when students breaks the rules) to stupid rules that they "establish" at the beginning of the year.... So what happened? Well, instead of administration trying to help out this poor teacher, they corner him with "evidence" of how awful of a teacher he is and they tell him that he must willingly resign from his teaching position or get reprimanded by not being allowed to work for the district AGAIN! What is a poor, intimidated, new teacher supposed to do?

Yeah, he asked for help. He went to the rep of our union for help, and she accompanied him to all the meetings that he had to endure with the principal and whoever else is pushing our new teachers to "willingly" resign. Did the teachers' union rep help at all? I don't know, but he's no longer working with me, so I'd have to assume, NO, she didn't help very much. I'm very much upset by this because this is the second year in a row where a friend of mine (a new teacher with NO support from anyone) is asked to leave the school. Their students are then feed some bullshit about how the teacher left early due to personal reasons. Why can't administration just have the balls to come out to the students and say, "We fucked up. We put all you assholes into the same classes and gave those classes to a new teacher, and we didn't help the teacher when he needed our help and support. You kids are ungrateful brats, but we fucked up." ?

I was very fortunate to have gone through a great masters/teacher's prep program through UCSD where support was always available. I feel that my personality is strong enough to handle the types of kids that come through my school, but I also feel that I was taken care of my by supervisors through my program. If I ever needed someone to stand up for me, guide me, give me tips or console me, I knew that I could always count of my supervisors. With that being said, I think that all new teachers should have someone that is not part of their work site that they can count on for help and support. I know that the district has this program for beginning teachers and that program comes with a person called a "support provider", but its not the same thing. These support providers have an agenda, especially if they work at the same site as the new teacher. I could go on and on about this issue, but I think I'll stop for now.

So, what is my point?

Why are people so damn surprised that new teachers don't last long? Well, fuck, they don't get support! Teaching is a tough profession and I wasn't aware of that until I became a teacher. We're very much under appreciated by principals, vice principals, parents and especially students.