Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Me and my shadow

This past week, a student in the Educational Leadership program was assigned to shadow me. The first day, I found out she is currently not in a teaching position. She hasn't started looking for a teaching position because she'll graduate with her Leadership degree in December. In fact, she has never even had a job, much less been a teacher. It is so painfully obvious she has no idea what the real world is like!

Why would you want a leadership degree when you haven't even tried out the teaching part of the job? And why does the university allow blatantly inexperienced students into the leadership program because really, those of us in administration question our sanity as to why we went into administration on many a good day?

So they sent her to shadow me for a week. A week when I don't have students and I don't have teachers. All she is learning is the paperwork part of my job. Big, hairy deal. The real fun starts when the students arrive.

At the end of the week, I will have to rate my shadow. So far, she has just come across as young and immature as I'm sure all of us would have been if we had no reason to work. She came to work 5 minutes late yesterday. This truly pissed me off surprised me as I had just explained the day before that one of the deadly sins in education (my opinion, my school) was tardiness. And she has left the school to take an hour+ lunch break both days. She can't seem to remember to bring something with her to eat and doesn't seem to grasp the idea that teachers and administrators have to eat lunch in approximately 3 minutes on most days.

She doesn't have a frickin clue.

Since whatever I have to say to her seems to fall on deaf ears, I am assuming she will eventually get the message from her supervising professor when I complete her evaluation and send it in.

All I can say is I wouldn't want to work in a school if she was running it. Hell, I wouldn't even want to put a my child in her class.

32 comments:

Hit 40 said...

But....

if she is stacked, your male bosses will hire her. Sorry - they will. Her incompetence just might make her superintendent.

Brian Miller said...

and...

the reality is she may just need soneone to be honest with her. Otherwise you are condemning not only her future staff, the kids, but her as well.

Anonymous said...

And like you said, she's never been in the classroom so she has no frickin' clue what it's really like..... I hate TARDINESS! And my LAST (hee hee) principal let some of the teachers who didn't have homerooms roll in RIGHT when the bell rang. Drove me nuts!

mo.stoneskin said...

So what you're really saying is that she'll be made head teacher in a few weeks time?

cheatymoon said...

Oh come on now. The university has it backward. I would have so much trouble working with a person like this.

(Although, Beth, send her my way - my students would scare her out of education.)

Have fun writing that eval!

Ash said...

Tardiness!! It's the 8th deadly sin in my book - or does Sloth cover that?

Someone needs to write a positive story about the upcoming adult generation. Soon. Before I plastic sheet/duct tape my doors and windows and never leave the house.

Anonymous said...

gosh i hope you really let her supv know that she needs some real life experience before she goes and try to get a job!

what's wrong with those kids now-a-days? they think they know everything!

(boy i just sounded like i'm 60)

*krystyn* said...

Sounds like she needs to hear what you will put in that evaluation. Hopefully her supervisor can get that thru to her. You must be so annoyed/frustrated with her...I know I would be.

Everyday Goddess said...

The old Kick 'em upstairs principle may apply here.

Don't hold back on your assessment. Your words have gravitas.

Jan said...

I had an accounting intern from one of those "get your bachelor's in 2 years" colleges once. The kid was clueless about the basics of accounting - how can you get a degree in accounting and not know a debit from a credit? - was consistently late to the office, could not sit up straight and would not speak above a mutter.

But he could text like a madman on his phone every time I turned my back.

I imagine he was not very happy with my review when it was all said and done.

beth said...

how is it even possible to shadow someone in the education field in the middle of summer? that makes no sense to me. also, how do you get a degree in "leadership" without ever having lead anything? that also makes no sense to me. sigh. i hope she pays attention to what you have to say.

Candice said...

I would love to see that eval when you're done with it. :)

Unknown said...

Knowing you'll do the right thing in writing her evaluation, I'll be happy to learn she won't be continuing her job search in the education field.

Jane

Anonymous said...

I am glad that she is shadowing someone who will not mince her words on the evaluation for the sake of the kids she may eventually be responsible for. It amazes me that some people think it's a walk in the park ...

Kulio said...

What an opportunity you have! (Evaluation) Are you gonna say something about the weirdness of having her shadow you during the summer? I value the total immersion experience (as opposed to sprinkling)...isn't there a daycare center around where she can spend the day? GOOD LUCK!!!

Kristina P. said...

We get a lot of interns at my job. One of them is now a therapist there, and is one of my best friends. She was awesome.

Some are HORRIBLE, and I can't believe that they will actually ever have a job.

We have a Master's Level student right now, for social work, who has worked there over 2 months, 40 hours a week, who is STILL not seeing clients, and she has no-called, no-showed the past 3 days. I want to kill her.

Missy said...

I hate shadows! Especially, if I like them as a person, but they suck at their job!

Reinvent Dad said...

I agree with the comments above, but you need to give it to her straight right NOW...before she leaves and then receives the evaluation. I'd first ask your "shadow" why she's taking this leadership course, and then I'd tell her exactly what your position entails and what YOU expect of HER while she's following you along.

I'm having a HUGE problem with this late teen / early 20-something generation. I have to look long and hard to find examples in that age group that are truly kickin' it into high gear and dedicate as much time to studying, training and working as they do to text messaging.

We sugar coat and use euphemisms way too often. We fail to say what needs to be said because we don't want to hurt someone's feelings and/or to be liked. The ONLY way these individuals are going to be successful in the future is through hard work...nothing more, nothing less.

Rosaria Williams said...

Oh, she's young. She'll learn.

Michel said...

Ummm.,.beth....she seems to be exhibiting all the traits of all the leaders I have had to work with in my line of work!

what?

Mike said...

Also...
If you give her a bad review, some people will think that you are being "Catty"!

Beth said...

Wow! What a day!

Today ending up being her last day as my shadow because she has a doctor's appointment and will have to miss two days of shadowing. Whatever. She can't even shadow a whole week? When there are no teachers or students?

I've tried to talk to her. I've been nice then pretty blunt. Apparently, she is capable of walking on water. Who knew?

Thanks for all the comments! I wish success for the girl - but she has some serious realigning of the priorities to do first.

CiCi said...

Maybe the best thing that has happened to her was to be assigned to you. If it were me, even being a young thing, I would prefer an honest evaluation. There are already too many things in life way far of the honest mark.

Chris said...

Seems odd to me that someone would be in line for "leadership" without ever having been "led". At least you can set her straight early on.

But be nice . . .

Smart Mouth Broad said...

So do we get to see the eval here? I know, I'm awful.

Fidgeting Gidget said...

Having someone like that in a leadership program reminds me of my university class where my TA for a CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT class was a girl who had NEVER had her own classroom except for student teaching. And she was supposed to teach me about classroom discipline? Pshaw.

And I agree. Being blunt with her is the only way to go. She will thank you for it someday because she'll either change her direction or wake up and smell the coffee.

Optimistic Pessimist said...

It's amazing to watch people who don't have a clue in action, isn't it?!

H.K. said...

Maybe she's in the leadership program because they university will use her as an example of what a leadership is not and they will show her!

Carma Sez said...

sounds like someone is in for a bit of a rude awakening...

Jason, as himself said...

She doesn't stand a chance.

Dee-Zigns Handcrafted Jewelry said...

Good for you Beth that you are going to fill out the evaluation honestly, instead of trying to flower over her lack of abilities.

Crazy Charm said...

You should have made her eat standing up. That's a real life teaching experience!

I just read your comment that she's missing two days of shadowing. Good lord! There were people like this in my internship, and they infuriated me.