In-Box Activity 2

In- Box Activity 2

Scenario 1

Your first and second grade teachers, all four of them, are attending a district professional development session held off site.  Their in-service started at 8:00 am. (Their cell phones are turned off.)  Your school day starts at 9:00.  You are the only administrator at the school.  You have one counselor who is sitting in an IEP meeting (that started at 8:00 am) with the only Special Ed. resource specialist you have.  This is a high profile and highly-charged IEP that involves not only the parents but their advocate as well. 

At 8:45 only two visiting teachers have arrived.   You are very much aware that one of the substitutes has issues with classroom management.  He is generally short-tempered and inflexible.  Additionally, he rarely follows a given lesson-plan and relies on videos to keep the children occupied. 

In response to your call, central office indicates that there are no additional substitutes available. The pending long holiday weekend, and the professional development sessions have left the supply of visiting teachers depleted.

What do you do?

Scenario 2

You are meeting with a parent who is requesting a grade change for her son.  The young man received a semester grade of C in his History class.  The young man’s GPA prior to the semester was a 3.85.  He had received A’s in his prior social studies classes.   The parent has met with the teacher and with the counselor.  The teacher refuses to change the grade and the counselor has sided with the student and his parent.

Prior to the meeting with the parent, you met with the teacher.  He says the young man did do well on all tests and completed assignments.  However, there were at least four assignments missing for which a grade of  0 was given.  Theses 0’s lowered the student’s average to a C grade.  The teacher’s attitude is very defensive.  He states that he is being targeted by demanding parents and less than honest students

You have visited the teacher’s classroom and noted the general lack of organization in the room and in the lessons presented.  You are aware that students try to avoid being assigned to this teacher because of his reputation of losing papers and tests.

The parent has copies of the assignments that she says her son submitted during the semester. The young man made copies of everything because of the reputation of the teacher.  The collection of papers includes the assignments missing from the grade book.   The parent is calm yet obviously irritated.  She is expecting you to resolve the situation today

How do you handle this meeting?  Assuming you receive no additional information to sway your decision, what would you do?


Write a brief  response to each scenario from the viewpoint of a site administrator.  You make the decision and take an action.  What will they be?  Be thorough in explaining the reasons for your decisions.