Unannounced Observation

Leah was thinking about how ready she was for the school week to be over and the first late bell hadn't even rung. She was dreading the duties she would have to face with tomorrow's home football game but at least even that duty signaled the start of the weekend. She was standing in her doorway greeting students as they scurried through the halls and entered her classroom for the first period of the day. The good students came in and started on their warm up activity, the lazy ones just sat and played on their phones or chatted quietly. Principal Howard walked through the hall and Leah's heart stopped as she dreaded seeing him. He was walking around with a clipboard so maybe he would ignore her for some other bullshit he was working on as supreme leader of the school.

He is probably going to ask me to come to his office during my planning again that fucking bastard. She thought as he neared her.

"Ah Miss William's," Principal Howard said in his usual asshole fashion before continuing "Good morning. I hope you are doing well?"

"I am doing alright; how are you?" She asked hoping he would answer quickly then fade from her view--and memory.

"Doing good, doing good. Just thought I would pop into your class for one of your observations today." He shot her a wicked grin.

"Today!?" Leah said, her eyes widened at the thought of having an observation today.

"Yes, you don't mind right? You get a few each year and since this is your tenure year they are even more important." He walked passed her and entered the classroom before turning back to her.

"I am sure you will do fine." he smiled.

"Well ummmm yeah of...of course. Please take a seat somewhere." Leah's mind darted to what she was doing today for class. She stepped back inside and saw the projector screen and read it off to jog her memory. She was so thrown for a loop she had to remember the basics. Even on most "unannounced" observations all but the cruelest of admins would give you a heads up, even if just a few hours. Mr. Howard wasn't pulling any punches this year as he started off first thing. Luckily this wasn't Leah's worst behaved class and sleepy students who had spent too much time staying up late on stupid video games or tiktoks didn't normally cause problems. But they often didn't engage with the material that early either.

Leah went back to her desk avoiding Mr. Howard's gaze as she double checked that she had all her paperwork in order.

Handouts....okay...warm up on the board....okay....stupid state standards on the board...okay....exit ticket ready....hmmm seems like everything is fine....okay. She worked through the lesson again and again in her head. As the late bell rang she took a quick visual head count of her students and marked the roll silently during the school announcements following the pledge of allegiance and the moment of silence--the South's response to prayers officially being banned in school. Leah tried to **** Mr. Howard from her mind and went on auto pilot for the day's lesson. He was busy jotting down something on his clipboard as Leah walked around the class pretending to be the best teacher she could be. While they were mostly sleepy teens they also knew that with another adult--the principal no less--in the room that Leah's expectations of them were even higher. So some students certainly paid a bit more attention and a few even engaged with the lesson in order to grade grub or continue being a teacher's pet.

"Well the bell is about to ring so make sure you submit your 'Exit slip' on Google Classroom." Leah said timing the bell to just the exact time.

*Ringggggggggggggggg* The sudden chaos of students rushing to leave clogged the classroom doorway until enough had fled to roam the halls.

"Thank you for letting me come observe today Miss Williams. " Principal Howard said as he neared the classroom doorway.

"Of course." Leah said with grit teeth "Any time." She made a clearly **** smile.

"Just be sure to come by my office during your planning so we can discuss your performance. You know the drill."

Ah. There it was. Leah groaned internally. After every observation there was always an after action review of sorts. Normally they had to be conducted within a number of days after the observations. Mr. Howard clearly wanted to get it over with sooner rather than later--or he just wanted to have Leah back in his office sooner for other unsavory reasons. Leah suspected the latter.

"Oh I see. Very well I will be sure to come by during my planning." Leah said staring daggers at him. He nodded and turned away jotting something else on his clipboard. Leah added muttering out of his earshot-"Fucking bastard."

The rest of the school day went by and Leah's mind was on auto pilot as she taught. She dreaded what this observation report would be like. Leah found Principal Howard's door open when she swung by on her planning period.

"Come on in Miss Williams." he said moving to his feet. He poked his head outside his office door and addressed the older secretary "Amber I am doing an observation review with Miss Williams--so no visitors okay?"

"No problem Mr. Howard." the old crone said before turning back to her computer screen with gossip media news front and center to engross her. Mr. Howard shut and locked the door with an audible metallic click.

"Please take a seat." he said as he took a seat himself behind his desk. "So....your observation let me see."

He grabbed the clipboard he had earlier and scanned over it visually for a moment.

"Is this really necessary?" Leah said boldly.

"What do you mean?" He asked looking up from his notes.

"I mean....do we really need to have one of these? Can't you just go ahead and put down something good so I get tenure? That was our...._deal _after all." Leah crossed her arms disgusted at how she was constantly fulfilling _HER _end of the deal.

"You know Miss Williams the paperwork still has to be in order. And that is a big part of the tenure process." He said staring at her. "Just like school grades you can get an F--well no one really gets those--except people we tend to fire. Realistically its from a D all the way up to an A."

Oh God lets wait for the bad pun... Leah mused.

"Now frankly Leah--if you are wanting an A you are going to have to consider how to handle....the D." he paused for added effect before making the crass joke.

Leah rolled her eyes.

"Oh come on. I have been doing my part of the deal." Leah protested.

"Yes Miss Williams, but here at Pleasant Plains High School we expect the best from our teachers." He said in a tone Leah couldn't tell if he was serious or not. "You can't expect to get tenure without your paperwork lining up with the community's expectation now can you?"

"Really?" Leah asked incredulously.

"Yes, Leah." he said with a slight nod. "Now the real question is--just how good of a grade are you going to earn?"