Jami Holbein Swanson March 28, 2012 rch 7, 2012

Appendix C

TEAC 930A Observation 2

Goodrich Middle School Friday Morning Teacher Breakfast Observation 2

March 23, 2012
Goodrich Middle School The Goodrich principal announced his retirement at the end of the school year the two weeks prior to my visit. When I arrived at the building, I did not know that the candidates to replace him would be visiting the building during the regular breakfast club time and that they would interview at the district office immediately following the breakfast. This was not a typical morning at Goodrich Middle School. The media center was a buzz with the excitement of meeting their next new boss. Bagel bites and doughnuts, fruit, juice and coffee were presented more formally. During my last visit the doughnuts are in a box left half open and juice/coffee are pour your own on Speed Racer tablecloths. On this day tablecloths, printed matching napkins, carafes of juice and a shiny coffee maker dawned the serving table. The three candidates were all dressed in their best interview suits and mingled with the Goodrich staff with stiff interview day smiles. The majority of the teachers were dressed in jeans and Goodrich t-shirts. It appeared as though you are supposed to wear jeans unless you have a school t-shirt. The Spanish, FCE teacher and their mentor, Shelley Speidell were visiting in the media center. All of the teachers were talking loudly about the challenges of the week with students and early summer like weather and how glad they were it was Friday. Some teachers talked quietly about their perceptions of the candidates out the edges of the event. Another hot topic of the morning was staffing points. March 15th was the deadline for teachers to report their intentions for employment with LPS. Soon to follow are the number of students registered for each class. If class sizes are under 17 (what seemed to be the magic number) the section would not be offered to students. The impact of a decimated budget has raised class sizes to 32 or more, which requires fewer teachers. Elective teachers are in competition with each other for student interest and student enrollment. The elective teachers were sharing the number of classes they thought they might have for next year. Chinese went up one section. Which would raise Wesleys FTE to .8. He is only contracted to .6. This came a surprise to everyone, including Wesley who has had a rough year with classroom management, becoming accustomed to American culture and not having his mother around to take care of him. He told us how excited he was to have his mother retire and come to Lincoln so she could cook, clean and do laundry for him. Shelley teased him because he calls her his American Mom and

2 was afraid she would not be needed any more. He laughed knowing how much he relied on her this past year. Amandas numbers also went up a section. She was not sure what her increase was all about. Goodrich will be gaining students next year. I asked her if the class increase was in the 6th grade or the 8th grade. She thought 6th grade. Shelley explained that the 6th grade class was larger next year and that the 13-14 school year would be the year to see if Amanda was generating student interest in the 8th grade for Spanish I sine her present 6th graders would be in the 8th grade. The FCS teachers numbers were the same and so would be her FTE. A new nursing mom, she was just glad she had made it through the year and was looking forward to summer. She looked tired but seemed to be managing. At 7:55 teachers closed up conversations and migrated to their classrooms. As they left the media center, voices became hushed as they share their perception of principal. I heard more conversations about which one they did not want than I did about who the thought they might want to have as their next supervisor. As I walked with the elective teachers towards their classrooms, Shelley was talked about what she wanted in a principal and the untenured teachers listened intently.