Luckily, during finals season, Flo was able to focus on grading the end-of-year finals more, since, once the final ends, there are no more lectures to prepare and deliver. She was able to post the final grades for all five of her sections by Monday night.
On Tuesday morning, the day starts at work, when Warren, who fell behind in grading the AP Bio exams because of his trip to the HSNCT. Speaking of HSNCT, Warren briefly talks about this year's VA squad to her at the very start of the day, before the three debate players start practicing for Nats:
"Hi Flo, we did better at the HSNCT last weekend than we did last year!" Warren exclaims in front of her. "That run was, like ten years ago, lost on the last tossup, too, and we ended twenty-fourth"
"I'm happy for the quiz bowl team, but today is the time for the debaters to start doing research for Nats" Flo then responds to him. "See you later"
Speaking of debaters, all three of them arrive shortly after, and they go into the room used for AP French this year.
"I trust you know what the topics are this year, and that, to get a better idea of what to research, as well as to what to include on your opening statements, we should watch the topic analysis videos posted on YouTube. And then we can start practicing the answers to the common arguments on either side" Flo explains the roadmap for the next two weeks to them.
"Just having well-structured and logically sound opening statements are not the end of the story. We might want some practice rounds against other peeps at Nats" Jacob asks her.
Amica and Jacob both watch the topic analysis video so they know what kinds of arguments are expected to be run on both sides of the issue, and they start formulating ways to respond to them. They'd then have a better idea of what sources to look for to cut their cards. Which they do when Henry starts watching the analysis video of the LD topic after the PF pair watched theirs.
Clearly Jacob proves much more adept at cutting cards than Amica. By the time Henry is finished watching his video, Jacob already has dozens of cards ready, with the key information as well as its source.
"That's a lot of cards for about half an hour of work, we need to review these cards together before you can get into the angles you can approach the topic from, and, from there, write your opening statements" Flo comments on the cards the pair cut while Henry was watching the topic analysis video.
I guess, Myriam, whom I knew when I was new to VA's faculty, showed Jacob how to cut cards efficiently and effectively, which is one of the main things that translate from quiz bowl to debate, Flo seems to think of Jacob's skill at card-cutting, believing that he learned that from his sister, while reading the key points of each card. And then she thinks of how to fit in the card into an argument on either side.
"Florence Finney, please come to the principal's office" Marianne announces over the PA system, while taking care to pick out the room Flo used for debate team practices.
"OK, guys, I need to go to the principal's office. Please make an effort to understand the cards and where they fit into arguments until I return" Flo instructs the players in the room.
Oh boy, I guess all teachers up for tenure are due to meet with Marianne at some point, and I guess it's my turn, Flo starts feeling "butterflies in her stomach" as soon as she leaves the debaters on their own to do their research and understand both the arguments and the evidence used to support them.
When she arrives at the principal's office, Marianne is a little tense herself as well, after having conducted a meeting with another untenured teacher before meeting with Flo in the morning.
"First off, Flo, we would like to discuss the complaints from last year. Last year, students complained, especially in AP French, that you skewed too heavily towards history. Let's review this year's student evaluation of teaching" Marianne starts the meeting.
At Wattpad High, it seems that, since it was in an impoverished, inner-city neighborhood, the district was more lenient with giving tenure than this one is. It was pretty much granted automatically so long as a teacher didn't commit crimes beforehand. I mean, one of the worst teachers at Wattpad High was basically a matchmaker with a teaching license, and the district forced me to give them tenure. However, with the new superintendent, I'm not sure about how the parish office will treat staff decisions going forward, so administratively life was easier at Wattpad High. And yet, there is more to being a principal than paperwork or discipline. Discipline is not always great, but it's normal to have a few incidents, Marianne has another mental before-after image flashing in her mind about staffing decisions. She then hands over the SETs for Flo to review these.
After she let Flo peruse the SETs from her two courses, it appears that students are more satisfied with the courses than they were last year. Especially with the reading materials and the assignment topics.
"They didn't complain about the subject matter of the readings or writing assignments as much as they did last year, that's good. This year I swapped out some past history readings in French for stuff such as financial literacy, online and road safety, and other content parents regularly ask us to cover but don't neatly fit into any specific course" Flo explains herself.
"You're on to something. Out of what you said, however, the only thing that's currently implemented is financial literacy as part of math courses" Marianne adds to this conversation about the changes Flo implemented.
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"I have a question: I wonder if it's possible to have the same coverage of these topics in the Spanish courses' reading materials"
"On average, VAs take French and Spanish in roughly equal numbers" Marianne lays down the cold, hard truth about foreign language course enrollment at VA.
"Because of that, I don't want people taking Spanish to be deprived of content advanced French-takers get" Flo vehemently protests. "Our kids deserve better"
"Especially since students tend to take one foreign language for the entirety of their educations. We may want to have a meeting with the instructor of AP Spanish as well, before the beginning of the year, about this topic"
For as long as I taught here at VA, who taught what in foreign languages was decided by who knew that language best, and hence I taught high school French II and AP French, Flo struggles to remember who teaches AP Spanish, especially since she never interacted with that teacher much.
"As for your role in coaching the debate team, more than ever, you're the reason why we even keep the team in operation, even though it may be a little expensive" Marianne then comments on this debate season.
"Expensive? The debate team only costs about one thousand per player, Nats excluded! It's a pretty shoestring budget by debate standards!" Flo points out the costs of running the debate team.
"This school runs on an equally shoestring budget, the parish is a little impoverished" Marianne points at the school-wide income statement for the whole school year, which she then shows to Flo.
"You realize that other principals elsewhere in this region hire teachers so they can coach a specific team and then any knowledge of teaching any teachable subject is gravy for them. What sets this school apart from the rest of southwest Louisiana is that we're the only ones who actually focus on academic teams other than FFA" Flo then comments on what she saw elsewhere in the region.
"I hereby grant you tenure, with all the privileges and obligations tenure implies" Marianne solemnly announces her.
"Woohoo! No more stressing out early in the year!" an exuberant Flo then jumps for joy.
"One last thing: I invite you, as with the newly tenured English teacher, to meet with my kids and my family tonight. My oldest is about to start at VA in August" Marianne issues an invitation to Flo.
When Florence returns to the AP French classroom, she realizes that the trio of debaters wasted no time in trying to get a deeper understanding of the arguments they plan on running at Nats. However, they're still in the early stages of doing so.
The team then spends the rest of the day getting a better feel for the arguments and their supports and finally gets around to writing their opening statements.
It's only near the end of the school day the PF pair appears willing to have a practice round, albeit one-on-one, and then all phases of the round can be covered. At the same time, Flo listens to Henry's opening statement on the aff and then cross-examines him. She then tries to both respond to his arguments on the neg, and make her case for the neg.
Flo then turns to her players. "If you want real practice rounds, I'd say ask wherever you can, if you have the contact info of anyone at any of the inter-state tournaments we attended, and who's competing, now is the time to use it! And don't forget to change the sides being argued when you ask others for practice rounds!"
"Very well, coach" Amica sighs.
That night, Flo arrives at Marianne's home, while the other newly tenured teacher has already arrived. When the two are finally in front of Marianne's children, the mother faces the teachers at first:
"This is Florence Finney and Ena Gale, a French and an English teacher at Venomous Agendas High respectively" Marianne then turns to her children. "This is Sonny, my oldest, and Carmen, my youngest"
"I have a question for you: why did you invite them home?" their father asks Marianne, puzzled and surprised as to why these two teachers are even invited to their home.
"I invited them home so that the kids would get to know who could be teaching them going forward" Marianne explains herself, while the children's father meets with them.
"You had us move here because you feel like our kids' education would suffer if we remained in our old neighborhood! I took a pay cut to follow you to southwest Louisiana and remain with the kids! Can you please explain why do you believe this town's education is any better than what we left behind? Last I heard, Louisiana's education system was very poor!" the father whines about even living in Jefferson Davis Parish.
"When I started out as an educator, I taught in a high-need area so I could pay off my loans faster. I paid back my loans, I became a principal because, like here, nobody wanted to become one, and..."
"Same here: I started teaching here because this parish was deemed a high-need area!" Ena starts telling the family.
"Something tells me that you fell prey to some sort of the grass is greener!" Flo adds to what Ena said. "What actually changed between your old life and now?"
Flo's question gives Marianne pause. She feels forced to reflect on the changes made by working at VA as opposed to her old workplace. And also about her life outside of work.
"For one, cost of housing is much lower. Our current mortgage payments are lower than our old rent" Marianne answers them. "That's the main area that has changed, even if the education part proved not to meet what I expected: purchasing power. For now, however, I'm willing to give VA a chance"
"I have a question about Sonny: do you plan on having any of your kids join any specific extracurricular?" Flo asks her, concerned that Marianne would unduly pressure the kids.
Damn it! So many things VA offers and Wattpad doesn't! Heck, the ones the locals pride in the most are the ones virtually no one else in southwest Louisiana does! Mathletics, quiz bowl and, to a lesser extent, debate... Marianne seems to have heard of FFA but only by name, but FFA flew under the radar for a reason. Even with milk tasting being the only good FFA thing this year.
"Not really, what he wants to do in school is his choice. I will respect his decision, and same goes of Carmen a few years later" Marianne answers the French teacher. "Here's to hoping that you two will realize what I hope for my kids in language arts, that the grass really is greener at VA in that department vs my old workplace"
"If I may, as much as individual teachers can and do affect a student's life, there's only so much any individual teacher can do for any given student" Ena adds.
"On top of that, it's not a given that any of your kids will actually choose French for a foreign language" Flo makes another comment about the kids' educational choices.
To get the two to relax, they try to watch movies with the principal's kids on Netflix, or even to play games with them. And maybe even to eat a snack, too: they are hungry. Kids and teachers. They both eat low-salt chips and, while Ena found low-salt chips a little bland, the others still eat them without complaining about their taste.
And later on, when the time comes to have a virtually salt-free dinner, with salad and then gumbo, they talk about anything but their work or the local education system.