Monday, June 2, 2014

Tim Cox Reports Me To the U of W

It was getting close to 4:30 and Justice Martin had already extended our hearing almost an extra half hour. I was desperately trying to convince him that I had enough evidence of malice to go to trial against Principal Skull and Mr. Tram. So far, the judge seemed to be giving credibility to their story that in acting to kick me out of the practicum, they had been motivated solely by legitimate concern for the welfare of their students. In their affidavits, they had listed three serious concerns on which the Principal had found it necessary to take immediate action:

1. My refusal to provide lesson plans, resulting in no progress made in the curriculum.

2. My aggresive and confrontational demeanor towards staff and students.

3. My defiant attitude and refusal to follow instructions.

I told the Judge that he shouldn't believe these accusations, and I thought had some pretty good evidence which tended to show that they were cooked up to provide an excuse to get rid of me. I'll tell you about that evidence another time; but in any event, the Judge was a hard sell. My main was that no matter what they claimed about having serious concerns, they still couldn't answer two questions:

1. Why had they kept these concerns secret from me for two weeks before suddenly springing them on me they day they kicked me out? That they had done so was unchallenged.

2. Why had they moved for an immediate expedited removal (as permitted by Page 28 of the Handbook) instead of going through the normal Due Process procedures as listed on Page 27, thereby depriving me of the opportunity to even respond to the accusations against me? That they had done so was also unchallenged by any evidence.

On the basis of these circumstances, I argued that "a finder of fact could reasonably infer the existence of malice." But now my time was almost up, and I knew there was one more thing I needed to say, if only I could flip through my notes and find it....

Ah, yes. The Cox transcripts! I was kicked out on a Monday morning, but it seems the previous Friday the vice principal had spoken to the Director of Student Teaching, Deb Woloshyn, and Deb had taken notes of their conversation. The judge appeared interested: just what was in those notes? Here is how Deb recalled their discussion:

  • The practicum is not going smoothly for Marty
  • Marty says he has 3 professors who have brought up non-Academic disobedience charges
  • This week Marty asked the VP if a homeless guy can come watch him teach -wanted him to have an opportunity to see what he could be. Tim said no. Marty interrupted Tim's conversation with someone else to make this request.
  • The Cooperating Teacher (CT) in Calculus has said that Marty's teaching is not to standard. Students are upset. Students are not getting it. Marty is all over the board.
  • Gordon Bell encourages its student teachers to observe in many classrooms, which Marty has done. The CT's have said that Marty is asking uncomfortable questions. The CT's have asked if they can have Marty work in the library until the Faculty Supervisor arrives (Nov. 22).
  • CT's have been documenting
  • Tim questions whether Marty has been coming and going from the building on his practicum day as he saw him coming in at 9:30 one morning
  • Tim has concerns of mental health. If Marty were a regular staff member, the3 Admin would be concerned
  • Our Faculty Supervisor will be at the school early next week to assist with concerns.

This is what they were saying about me on a Friday, and on the next Monday they kicked me out of school. But you should notice something a little peculiar about all this. On Friday, there was not a word about lesson plans, or aggressive confrontational behavior, or refusal to follow orders. According to Mr. Cox, I was leaving the building to go for coffee, and asking uncomfortable questions. And there was something about a homeless man. Those were his complaints.

But on Monday morning they had a completely different set of complaints. Were they not, I asked the judge, simply pulling things out of thin air wherever they thought they could find something to make me look bad?

The Judge appeared to be thinking long and hard about that as I sat down.

19 comments:

  1. I remember your saying "no" to a sit down with Dave, even though it was informal and I remember your CT offering you advice in which you said "No" to as well. Did your CT ever ask you to sit down and talk as well? These seem to be attempts to rectify the problems however your spurned them.

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    1. If you will describe the circumstances under which you claim I refused to talk to either Professor Bell or my CT (which teacher are you referring to anyways?) I will respond. Please include an explanation of how you happened to be present for both the incidents you refer to.

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  2. Marty, every one in Prof. Bell's class remembers him saying you two should go for coffee and you brushing him off and saying, no, you didn't want to do that. I can't recall what initiated the invitation/request though....

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    1. Well if you don't remember what prompted him to invite me for coffee, I can't help you. But you people always seem to have those memory lapses when it suits your purposes. I would think that If fifty people saw it, then surely one of them must remember the circumstances. And you still haven't explained how you supposedly saw the same thing happen with my CT.

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    2. I wasn't in your classes, but I was in other education classes. This whole mess happened years ago. For you, this mess you're entangled in right now gave you strong cause to go back and remember incidents (correctly or incorrectly, we have no way to tell), and you started doing this long before today.

      For other people, there was no good reason to focus on these events an archive them in the long term memory. Do you remember the flow chart? Senses --> awareness --> short-term memory --> working memory --> long-term memory?

      You put these incidents into working memory, and so you could archive them in long-term memory. It was important to you, and you were directly involved. For other people, they just filed the incidents under short-term memory, and later deleted it. All that hit long-term was the general trend, "here he goes again."

      From my classes, which I reiterate, I did not share with you, I can not recall in detail a single conversation from that time. I remember important concepts, general trends, and a few people. The nature of human memory is the reason people can't give you specifics.

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    3. If all these people can't remember any details of what happened in class, maybe they shouldn't be posting on my blog saying how I deserved to get kicked out of school.

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    4. I wasnt in your class, I was told to read this by a friend and I have been following all along. With what you post, I feel you deserved to get kicked out. Just listen to those complaints about you in this post alone. Everyone is wrong about you eh Marty? Oh right, they arent "wrong" they were just out to get you. Please...tel us about the other schools you have been kicked out of. Are they in on this too?

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    5. All I'm reading in this thread is a bunch of people who can't remember anything I actually did wrong, but think I deserved to get kicked out because I didn't want to go for coffee with a prof.

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    6. I think you deserved to get kicked out because you werent teaching the curriculum, you made fellow classmates uncomfortable, you made students uncomfortable, the students felt they werent learning anything, you were rude to profs, you were rude to classmates and plain and simple why waste everyones time? It was evident you were not going to change your ways, this blog demonstrates that and you would have been a horrible teacher.

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  3. I was in class for the "No" to Dave Bell, however, I meant to say I seem to recall you had said No to your CT as well, but could be wrong, Ive only been skimming these posts really quickly but that is something I thought I read. I cant remember why he asked you to coffee, or at what point in the process it happened, but I just remember the very stern "No I dont want to". It seemed rather odd.

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  4. You think every person that comments is saying you deserved to get kicked out. Some people are just trying to make sense of why you seemed to have turned down offers to discuss your concerns, both in university and possibly during your practicum.... Doesn't mean I think you should have been kicked out.

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    1. Well, if that's really what's bothering you, why don't we meet for coffee and I can tell you all about it? If you're free after school I can meet you Wednesday or Thursday. Or lunch if you prefer.

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    2. Marty,
      Your confrontational behavior got you banned from many places. According to one of your articles titled "How Do I Know I'm not a Crackpot?" dated Saturday, February 11, 2012 (http://marty-green.blogspot.ca/2012/02/how-do-i-know-im-not-crackpot.html), you wrote:

      "Then there's the business of getting kicked out of places. If you read every single post over the last two years you will know that I was:
      1. charged with assaulting a police officer while picketing a former employer
      2. banned for life from the University of Manitoba for teaching physics during a professor's strike
      3. banned for life from physicsforums.com for indeterminate reasons
      4. expelled from the Teacher Certification program at the University of Winnipeg"
      Also, you described getting fired from the University of the North for not following the curriculum. Seriously, I think that your behavior need to change in order for you to function as a contributing member of the society. Can't you see what is wrong with what you wrote? Everyone cannot be wrong, even you admitted this in one of your blogs. It's time to do the right thing. STOP this court case! Stop wasting tax-payers' money. STOP wasting your life!

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    3. You know, you're interrupting a conversation I was having with Former Classmate. If you want to start a new topic, don't do it with the "REPLY" button. In the meantime, my offer of coffee still stands, Former Classmate. Are you in? I'm buying.

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    4. No Marty. Thanks for the offer, but I don't think there is any reason for us to have a sit down. There is nothing you can say in person that can't be said on your blog. I know your true motive is just to figure out the identity of some of your so called 'haters.'

      Its really neither here nor there who I am....

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    5. Hmmm....so NOW who's refusing to sit down for coffee?

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    6. I barely have time to sit down and have a coffee with the people I love, why in God's name would I sit down with you??? What possible benefit would I get from this?? Move on Marty, move on... Just stick to the topic, never mind trying to be cute.

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    7. And yet you have plenty of time to follow this blog. Hmmm...

      By the way, speaking of sticking to the topic, today's topic was my argument last week before Justice Martin on the Schollteacher's Motion for Summary Judgment. Why are we arguing about whether I should have gone for coffee with Professor Bell three years ago?

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