I am a teacher leaving my toxic school (and education altogether) at the end of this school year. Principal sent out an email letting us know that the school is applying for a ‘school of excellence’ award. They are making it a part of our required professional development meetings to get together and ‘brainstorm ideas and help craft the narrative of what makes our school so special’.
They will be scheduling these meetings out over the next three months with different staff ‘invited’ to each meeting, and without letting us know when each of us will be required to attend a session. I think this is their way of making sure people can’t request time off on the day they’re scheduled because they won’t know when that day is until it’s right around the corner. I find this comical – they know that no one would have anything positive to say or volunteer to do so, so they are forcing us to get together and ‘brainstorm’ about it. Doesn’t that just scream excellence?!