Being Judged

I made it through my observation at work. I wholly ignored the man in my classroom as I attempted to appear dynamic and effective despite being sick. My students, naturally, did their best to make me look good by doing things like pointing at the observer and highlighting my masterful teaching by asking, 'teacher, who is him?' *sigh*
We had a meeting with two of the people from the headquarters as well where they asked for our input on the books and curriculum. I felt I should keep my counsel as I'm relatively new and, as the saying goes, better to hold your tongue and be thought a fool than to speak and prove it so. But when they asked about the Social Studies book I snapped. I pointed out that the book is so politically correct it leaves Koreans with the impression that 25% of Americans are wheel-chair bound (seriously, there's one in every chapter and, of course, they never display any other signs of trouble, just perfect cherubic children who happen to be sitting in a wheelchair). I also suggested that, perhaps, having something more relevant to their existence into the curriculum would be good as I, personally, have a real problem encouraging children to memorize the fact that FDR created many jobs. I did make the argument that it would probably help them learn better as they are very young and rather than memorizing abstract, meaningless facts about US history they could be learning to describe things they already know in English.

It is my Friday and Emily is here for Lunar New Year. One more day of class and then we're going to rock out!