It's a Foreign Language, Apparently

You know how they say that if you have a problem with one person, that's one thing... but if you have a problem with several people that the problem is likely you? Yeah... I have that problem.

It began as a problem between my boss and I. No matter how many good ideas I've thrown at the man over the past 8 years, he never really hears a single one of them. I still remember my fourth year here when I suggested changing Advanced Biology to Advanced Placement Biology. He kind of looked at me funny and said he wasn't sold on AP courses. Then last year he comes and says he really wants to implement an AP science and have I ever thought about making Advanced Biology AP Biology? Really? Really.

Another thing I've been trying to hammer into my that man's head over the years is the fact that the ACT Science portion doesn't require you to know anything for content. It is all data interpretation and being able to read a graph and data tables. I've been saying this regularly for years. Years! Then last week, and again this week he's said that he read in a book that the ACT Science portion is all about data interpretation and the students don't actually need to know content for it. He now believes it. He also has no recollection of me ever saying such a thing. Infuriating. I absolutely loathe it when I have good ideas and/or points and they get ignored and I really thought it was an isolated situation between my boss and I.

It's not.

Enter the technology guy.

The first incident occurred when he emailed me to ask about the blogging I do in my classroom and mentioned he was looking into online classroom environments. I talked about the blog and then mentioned studeous.com which I thought was excellent and free. He responded and basically said free sites weren't worth looking at. So then this past summer he asked me to review blackboard.com for him since I'm one of the more technology literate people here (frightening). I mentioned it was clunky and that I would probably continue to use studeous.com anyway. He acted as though he had never heard of studeous. When I let him check it out he said it was great and then proceeded to recommend it to one of the principals in the district.

Ok fine, whatever, right? No. Last year I sent him a link to a video about how to make cheap smart boards using the ninetendo wii remote. I remember the email very specifically because he had to tell me I forgot to attach the video link. So I sent him another one. Then today he pulls me aside and procedes to detail how for about $100 bucks he can get me a decent equivalent to a smart board by using a nintendo wii remote. He said he first heard about it from a student. Again, he fails to remember that I've brought this very idea to him a year ago.

Do you see my problem? It's two people and more than just four incidents. What am I doing wrong here? Should I be pushier? Do I need to harass people? It doesn't matter if I speak up because I have and no one remembers me saying any of these things. I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone and I'm incredibly frustrated. It's not that I want the world for my ideas or suggestions or contributions, I would just like a little bit of credit where credit is due... maybe a "hekovajobtherebrownie."