One of those Days

Have you ever had one of those days when it seams like nothing can go right?

It started that way for me Sunday afternoon and carried into Monday (today).

I received an e-mail message from a college who was responding to an e-mail I sent out saying that if anyone needed help with using an excel template that I would be willing to help them.

His response was as follows: (I am leaving out names for privacy sake)

Larry,
I figured that sense you like computers this is the way I would handle this. We appreciate what you do technology wise but it is time to quit focusing on cool things you can do on a computer and start to focus on collabing and NASA classes. I have a kid on my roster that when her folks see an F on her portal I have to answer them why. This is not a kid that is a behavior problem or any thing of the sort. Basically what you are doing is punishing them for the exact reason they are in your class. I thought we had this worked out. How can you fail NASA? That was her question to me. When Dale said he would like the NASA grade to reflect effort in NASA I don't think he meant that. I certainly am going to find out. I am going to call a meeting with all of our team and principal and get this worked out once and for all. I am not trying to be a hard-butt but this is not what NASA is all about. My hopes are is that you will read this before Monday and we can sit down and get it ironed out.


How should I take a letter like this?

First of all the girl failed an assignment not the entire class. The girl is presently getting a B+ in my class.

I didn't want to talk to the person who sent me this since I was just a little Pissed. He also sent this same message to the principal. So I talked to the principal and he was on my side of things and even laughed because the person who wrote the message is the one who asks for my help when it comes to computers the most.

From now on I am just going to worry about my self and not worry about trying to help out my fellow teachers as much. I am just going to do my job and move forward.

When reading this letter and to self reflect on this I could take it as maybe I was over stepping my bounds and was being viewed by some staff members as trying to run the department. That it is OK when they want to come to me for help but it is not OK for me to come forth with something that they could use to help out their teaching and collaborative teaching.

I admit, I like computers and I like trying to help people out. I was just trying to be a good member of our special education department.

By the way NASA is a skill building class for special ed kids. I grade the kids on how much effort they are putting forth and also grade them based on how well they do on their reading or writing probes. If they are not improving on their baseline then they will not receive a good grade.

So what view do you take. Am I a good guy, bad guy, or something in between?