Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Letter in the File

Today I received a "letter in my file" from my assistant principal.

Hold on though, it was a GOOD letter. It was thanking me for doing such a great job on a particular report that I have to do every year that collects data on the ELLs in the building. My AP said that she knew the report took a lot of extra time and I did it "without complaining" and my doing so freed her up to look after other things. She even threw in a little joke about how we both finally nailed down the meaning of a particular term regarding ELLs that had been throwing us off for quite a while now.

While I was very happy to be appreciated for my work on the report, the letter was kind of funny for a few reasons: 1) It's my job to do the report, not the AP's, so it wasn't really like I was helping HER out, 2) While it did take a lot of time, it wasn't as if I took it home or did it after school; everything was completed during regular school time, 3) I finished the report a month ago, so why the sudden recognition?

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have any positive letter put in my file that she wants to write, it just makes me wonder: Is the administration trying to butter me up for something?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe butter you up. Maybe prove that (he?) writes positive letters, to bring up against someone getting a negative letter. Maybe someone outside the building said they would be checking for positive letters? (last one seems unlikely....)

But it would make me suspicious.

Jonathan

17 (really 15) more years said...

Positive letters in the file have practically gone the way of the dinosaurs- so it is a bit suspicious. Just keep your guard up, and don't ever let any of them take you for a fool.