Michael Cook Memo #3
September 17, 2015
   Yesterday my principal told me, power play, that I need to place my students in pairs to learn so that

 I needed to move my attached seats from single rows to partners. She informed me that Mayor

Elorza and the new Superintendant would be arriving in the school and that I needed to make sure my

Objectives and Agenda were posted and that I was using a Workshop form for teaching. The next

day, when the Mayor was coming in, my chair had been rearranged from rows when they had swept

the floor and arranged into groups of fours with some facing away from the SmartBoard and the front

of the room where I usually teach from. Talk about micromanagement, I stood there for a minute

when I came in and could not believe that someone would change a teacher's classroom without their

permission.
     I was scheduled to give the STAR test to three of my classes that day, so it was not that

big of a deal to put up with. However, I have to take attendance on Skyward on the internet and

already had rearranged my classes with assigned seating and have them look at the assigned seating

posted onto the SmartBoard when they come in to make sure that they are in the correct assigned

seats. Skyward does not have a design to post in groups of fours, so they did not sit in their assigned

seats, and it took longer to call out their names so that I could mark attendance when they first enter

the classroom. The computer laptops were on the third floor in a special cart and I found out at the

end of the first period that the elevator was not working and I could not have the laptops for the

testing this day. I had to scramble to get a lesson together for these three classes because what I had

planned was not going to happen today.

   The principal checked into my classroom and looked around in my opinion to see if I had changed

the desks back and to let me know that they might be coming around sometime later. She also said

that she was looking for my application for the position that I was teaching in and would inform me

later if there was anything else that she need. I told her that I was qualified for the position and had

worked in several long term positions in other middle schools. I felt that this was not an appropriate

time to talk about the seating arrangement, and how it was not a good fit for when my math students

can not see the board and do not pay attention when facing forward at times anyways.

   On the bright side, I hope to have a full time position soon and I made it through the day.

P.S. I will be rearranging the desks into half circles to have them work together, but to be able to see

the board.