Teachers in Transition - Episode196: Dealing with a Bad Evaluation & Becoming Your own stalker

In this episode, Vanessa talks about dealing with a bad teacher evaluation, shares a few money saving hacks, and teaches you how to be your own best stalker in order to make sure your social media posts are representing you in the way that you want to be represented. 

The Podcast episode on the Dies Irae by Twenty-Thousand Hertz

The collegiate science project where she shows that fabric softener makes your clthes more flammable!

A link to our Facebook Page! Join us!

And remember to send your comments, stories, and random thoughts to me at TeachersinTransitionCoaching@gmail.com!  I look forward to reading them.  Would you like to hear a specific topic on the pod?  Send those questions to me and I’ll answer them. Feel free to connect with Vanessa on LinkedIn!

The transcript of this podcast can be found on the podcasts’ homepage at Buzzsprout. 

Transcript

Are you a teacher who is feeling stressed out and overwhelmed? do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout - or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing something different or a new job or perhaps pursuing an entirely different career - but you don't know what else you're qualified to do? You don't know how to start a job search and you just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you are not alone. my name is Vanessa Jackson; and I am a career transition and job search coach and I specialize in helping burnt out teachers just like you deal with the overwhelmingly stressful nature of your day-to-day job and to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you. You might ask yourself, What tools do I need to find a new career?  Are my skills valuable outside the classroom?  How and where do I even get started?  These are all questions you deserve answers to, and I can help you find them.  I’m Vanessa Jackson. Come and join me for Teachers in Transition.  

***Hi!  And Welcome back to another episode of Teachers in Transition. I am your host, Vanessa Jackson – I’m a compassionate career transition and job search coach. I am here to help you reach your goals and figure out how to translate your teaching skills into skills for your next career. I provide tips and suggestions to help with stress and mental health, hacks to help your day, and job-hunting tips.  If you are frustrated with your current teaching position – you are burnt out and overwhelmed, I am here for you. Today on the pod we are going to talk about how to deal with a bad evaluation. We are getting into evaluation season, and teachers are often blindsided by the post-observation meetings and evaluations.  I’ll share a few money-saving tips, and lastly we’ll talk about examining your social media to make sure that it isn’t working against you.

Today in our segment on stress and mental health we are going to talk about dealing with a rough teacher evaluation 

I taught a long time. Kids loved being in my classes. In my last year of teaching, the idea of evaluating teachers was mostly an exercise in futility. In my first walk through, things went GREAT! I never got feedback on that. The excuse was that the Wi-Fi in my wing was sketchy so it didn’t upload (and therefore the walk through expired). In my head, I was questioning the sketchy Wi-Fi – it was the same Wi-Fi I had to teach with and my students got to learn with, but I couldn’t do anything about that.  So, the evaluator shows up on the early dismissal day on the Friday before Halloween with pen and paper – so the Wi-Fi isn’t an issue. The problem was that every single student in that class period wasn’t at school – they were all zooming in online. The lesson was an interactive session on the Dies Irae from a podcast titled Twenty Thousand Hertz – I have linked the episode in the show notes). The kids really enjoyed it.  They could jump in with comments and ask questions in the chat which I could respond to all while the podcast was playing. They were very engaged.  Unfortunately, that was impossible for an evaluator to evaluate with only a paper and pen in the classroom. Nothing was ever filed on that one either. My last formal evaluation happened during a class where the students were so uncomfortable with the evaluator in the room that they clammed up and became unnaturally quiet. I expected that to be poor. I didn’t expect the paperwork to never get filed and two months later to have the evaluator frantically come to me to redo it. This time we did this in a class that was more active.  But the post-observation conference was harsh.  It was via Zoom, which was my choice entirely.  I was dinged for some campus something – I expected that.  I was already labeled difficult for calling out things that seemed poorly executed and for advocating for my department.  But then I got dinged for not providing a positive classroom environment and I was devasted. I gave my kids a home in the school. I’ve had kids talk to me when they wouldn’t talk to anyone else! I got that achy feeling at the back of my jaw and my eyes started to well up.  And I just stopped interacting.  There was a third thing I got dinged on, that I do not remember. It’s all quite arbitrary anyway.  When my evaluator finally realized they’d been talking away for quite a bit, they finally asked “What do you think?”
 
 All I could say was “I don’t know what to think anymore.”
 
 And that, friends, was the moment I decided that no matter what else – that was my last year in the classroom. 
 
 

There are ways to respond and rebut. I did.  If you belong to a teacher union or organization, make sure to talk with them because states have their own rules and guidelines. Here in Texas, you have ten days to respond in writing to something like that.  And if you aren’t sure whether it is ten BUSINESS days or ten CALENDAR days – that’s exactly why you need to belong to your union or teacher organization.  Your dues pay for staff lawyers that you get access to. Document, document, document… When in doubt, give yourself calendar day deadlines to make sure you aren’t missing them!

For those embrace Christianity, we are winding up Holy Week and Easter is tomorrow.  Not everyone is Christian, and not everyone even believes in religion, so I promise that I am not getting ready to try and convert anyone to anything.  I do identify as Christian, and I am even the piano player at my church, so I pay more attention to the sermon and the lessons than I might if I sat in the back. Last Sunday was Palm Sunday, and as I was listening to story of Jesus’ triumphant ride into Jerusalem and ending with his placement in the tomb, I realized that Jesus gives a very nice blueprint on how to handle a moment where you are having to sit through a bad post-evaluation conference or one of those little conversations where you are eviscerated for what feels like everything you do, say, feel, and ARE.  At this point in the story, Jesus has been called before the Roman Prefect because his local government crew wanted him dead and they didn’t have the legal means to make that happen.  They needed Roman government to do it for them. The area Prefect, Pontius Pilate, didn’t really want to put Jesus to death, but he couldn’t have people rioting in the streets either, so he was asking questions to Jesus to try and get people to see reason. 
 
 Jesus didn’t say much.  It’s like he knew that no matter what he would have said, it didn’t matter. As Pilate repeated the accusations to him of what he’d done, Jesus said nothing or  “that’s what you say.”  But he didn’t add anything that might add fuel to the frenzy whipping up around him. 
 
 

Here's a more secular story to illustrate the same point: 
 When I was college, I drove a 1981 Ford Thunderbird – black with red interior.  That car was so square that I used to joke that the only round parts were the steering wheel and the tires!   In (or around) 1984, Texas put a law in place about window tint – basically you couldn’t turn your own car into a mini-limo. That law applied to cars made in 1984 OR NEWER.  That little T-Bird had the extra dark tint on it.  dad told me if I was ever pulled over for that, to just say “yes sir, no sir” and take my ticket without complaint.  In court, all that was necessary was to point out that the law wasn’t applicable to my little car and that ought to be that.   Sure enough, I was pulled over in 1995 for tint. The kicker was that we had just had new tint put on to comply with the state law! But I didn’t argue. With what I know now that college-aged Vanessa did not know was that the whole stop was part of that model where they use a piddly little traffic stop to have an excuse to possibly find something bigger like drug smuggling. There was no probable cause to search my car, but I just knew to be polite and compliant.  All that officer found in my trunk was a Monopoly board game whose sides had broken and it was only Monopoly paraphernalia strewn about the trunk.  I walked away with a warning about my tint with the official comment being that it was less than 1% out of compliance. But I digress… the point is that I wasn’t going to win that fight in the field. I was going to have to fight any tickets in court, so it’s best to say next to nothing.

There is no point in arguing when someone isn’t interested in hearing a different side.  Silence can be your friend.  Silence can make the other side of the table increasingly uncomfortable.  Address any issues in writing with documentation after the feelings have settled will have more impact than melting down in the conference. We talked last week about armoring up – let silence, or a very limited vocabulary be a piece of that.  If you aren’t feeling the Christianity angle, try the Princess Bride, but instead of “as you wish” it is “as you’ve said”
 
 

Then you can deal with your feelings and take the next steps with adventures in documentation – and hopefully with a lawyer’s guidance from your teacher organization or union. 

But remember this:  That one moment in time is not necessarily an accurate measure of your skill. It was a snapshot of one class in one day from one person’s perspective.  And this one person may or may not know your subject and appropriate pedagogy.  And this one person may or may not understand unique circumstances that might have come up in your classroom on that day. 

MONEY HACK: 
 And on to our little money hack – our hacks here are design to save you a few cents here and there because any money you don’t spend is money you can bank for what you need when you are job hunting!  
 
 Electricity is a HUGE black hole of money.  And down here in the South, we’re in the preheat mode before the weather starts to attempt to cook us.

Quick hacks to consider: 
 1. Washing machine on cold, cool, or eco-warm.  Using hot water uses a lot more energy.  Save the hot water cycles for REALLY nasty loads. If you want whiter whites, a clothesline will be more effective than hot water - assuming your HOA allows it.  Not that I care about whiter whites, but I do like how a clothesline can help you eliminate the need for using the dryer as often.  That’s another energy hog.  In some other countries, they have a rack that stores up by the ceiling – they pull it down to hang clothes on and kinda push it back up to let it dry out of the way.  

2. Don’t use fabric softener.  Don’t, Don’t @ me on this.  Fabric softener costs money, and what is really does is make the clothes more flammable. I am adding a link in the show notes to a collegiate science project where she shows that not only did fabric softener make clothes more flammable, those clothes got MORE flammable with each successive use.  It also makes towels less absorbent.  Save your $$$.  Note: Dryer sheets are safe and don’t fall in the same category as fabric softener. 

And of course, number 3. turn out lights when you aren’t using them. Power strips are nifty because you can turn off a whole power strip and any of the devices plugged into no longer draw energy.  As you look around any room in the dark, every light you see not only intrudes on your sleep patterns but it’s also drawing energy.  I am a mean, mean Mom, and after my son graduated high school, I required him to chip in for rent and utilities. It was a token amount, and it all went into a savings account for him. Anyway, there was this interesting side effect I wish I’d stumbled upon much earlier. He was now responsible for a percentage of the light bill. He was now INCENTIVIZED to reduce usage because it affected him directly. That may have been horribly obvious to some of you already, but I was delighted that I wasn’t having to follow him around and turn everything out! Your kids may not be in a similar place where they are working, so you might need creative ways to illustrate the same point. If your kids get an allowance, consider having them put a portion back based on usage (that gets saved up for them for later, of course). Or use treats, time, or other desirables to illustrate the point. I’m happy to help brainstorm with you if you’d like.  I love a good challenge.

And now it’s time to move to our job-hunting segment: Social Media and your Job Hunt 
 Did you know that many companies will vet your social media profiles as they begin to look at you more seriously?  Yup. Some do. 

You need to become your own stalker and go through your social media.  Thankfully, I was too old for my most egregious stunts to appear on Facebook in picture format, but that isn’t true of everyone.  Wild party pictures, pictures of you at questionable events, and more … Those are things it may be time to make visible only to you for your memories. 

 I need to define questionable events – Sadly, it’s a broad category.
 
 

1.    Everything political falls in that category.  Regardless of your personal political beliefs, approximately half the country doesn’t agree with you – and you have no idea whether the people looking at your profile vote the same way you do or not. 

2.    Beef and Drama – No one wants to hire a whiner, a complainer, or someone who brings nothing but drama to the room.  If you have posts – particularly an excessive number of posts -  that call people out for reasons that “they know” it’s probably too dramatic. 

3.    Conspiracy Theories – I love a good conspiracy theory – but I don’t necessarily believe them nor do I wear tin foil hats. Don’t make it look like you do. 

4.    Don’t be too perfect – no one believes it. It’s OK to leave posts that something went bad or went wrong – in fact, that those moments can show resilience, problem solving, and flair. If you’re worried, just hold it up to your drama detector and compare it to our rule of thumb coming up shortly. 

5.    Complaints about your boss. Huge no-no here. Back when I was dating, I would never consider dating anyone that I could take away from their current partner. If they would leave someone for me, they would leave me for someone eventually. Same thing applies here.  If you’re talking badly about your boss now, a future boss can only assume that you’ll be one day talking badly about them.

A good rule of thumb as you scrub through your social media past is ask yourself how  would you feel about having to view it with Human Resources in the room. 

Remember – your social media is your personal brand. Lean into the things you want known about you make private all the things you don’t. Facebook has a setting where you can make a post visible only to you.  Use it as you need it.   

I hope some of this was helpful today!  After deciding on my topics, I went down a rabbit hole of my own on my webpage, so I want to warn you that this could take awhile to completely comb through – so be prepared for it to take a chunk of time, and maybe consider breaking it into smaller, more manageable tasks 

If you like this podcast and find it helpful, suggest it to a friend!  With all the technology that exists, the #1 best way to help a podcast keep going is to tell others about it!  So share away!  

Join me on Facebook! The Teachers in Transition Podcast Club is a place where you are welcomed and wanted.  Come on over!!  You can also ask me specific questions and I’m happy to answer. Just search for Teachers in Transition Podcast Club and it will come right up, but I also have a link in the show notes. 

If you are stuck in your job search, or are having trouble getting started, reach out to schedule a complimentary discovery call with me to see how I can help you pivot careers and find the job of your dreams. And next time you’re scrolling social media – stalk yourself a little bit and look with the eyes of a potential hiring manager!

That’s the podcast for today! If you liked this podcast, tell a friend, and don’t forget to rate and review wherever you listen to your podcasts. Tune in weekly to Teachers in Transition where we discuss Job Search strategies as well as stress management techniques.  And I want to hear from you!  Please reach out and leave me a message at Teacher in transition coaching at gmail dot com.  You can also leave a voicemail or text at 512-640-9099. 

I’ll see you here again next week and remember – YOU are amazing!