Napoleon and the First Year Teacher

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As I reread my last post, a thought strayed through my mind that’s worth blogging:

“I bet she did not report a lot of what he did, too.”

“Napoleon” was an emotionally-disturbed, second grader who liked to break and cut things. He scared the kids in his class. He scared my daughter. I had a number of conversations with the teacher about Napoleon. I’m sure many parents did.

I had not yet taken the helm in a classroom, though, so I did not fully appreciate this woman’s situation. A teacher’s first and second years are proving grounds. Administrators can be ruthless in weeding out new teachers who are not meeting performance standards, despite the fact that classroom management is learned on the job. Classroom management can be learned, but not all teachers get the opportunity to receive that education. As time goes by, firing teachers becomes harder; any earlier positive reviews can be used as ammunition to fight a dismissal. As a result, many administrators do not take a chance on new teachers who seem to be having more than the usual start-up, classroom management issues.

I vividly remember trying to help a new teacher in my school who was struggling. She did not want to be on administrative radar so she was allowing behaviors that needed to be stopped cold.

“Dumb-ass is not really a swear word,” she said to me.

“No, you need to write that up,” I explained, going over the reasons.

You let anyone call you a dumb-ass and it’s over. But she was afraid to report misbehaviors by that point and she had reason to be. My struggling district was always laying people off. We riffed virtually annually. Firing a new teacher can be seen as proactive on a principal’s part, a chance to get brownie points. And, frankly, I believe some girls in that class were targeting this new teacher.

That teacher did not survive. I later regretted not taking more of a stand for her. I believe would have been a fine teacher eventually.

I now recognize the second-grade teacher with Napoleon in her class had a huge problem. When he cut the computer cords, she had to report that, but a natural response might be, “Why weren’t you watching him?” That sounds reasonable, but monitoring twenty-some seven-year-old students every minute can be tough. When “Mindy” comes over to get help putting on her gloves, you have to focus on the gloves. A lot of kids need help with outerwear at that age. You can’t be watching Napoleon every minute and our Napoleons are often watching carefully to see when their teacher is not watching.

That first-year teacher survived and continued to teach in her district. She was blessed with a strong administration and true support. Financially-comfortable districts have the social workers and psychologists to provide necessary information and support.

But I am sure she seized those scissors many times and did not say a thing.

First and second-year teachers are frequently walking a tightrope, balancing the need to ask for useful help and support against the fear of being seen as unable to manage a classroom. Those teachers may be afraid to ask for help or make disciplinary referrals. They want to minimize the time they spend on administrative radar.

Eduhonesty: Pity the new teacher who receives a “Napoleon” or two or three or even more on her roster for the year, especially when Napoleon is new to the school and has not established a track record. Special education placement requires an often-tortuous process, one that new teachers may not know. When those teachers request help, they may realize that they should have been documenting behaviors for months and must now begin a lengthy paperwork process demonstrating possible need for testing and evaluation.

In the meantime, those teachers have to worry about the test scores that Napoleon has been undermining since he first entered the classroom.