Here’s how I started my day. It was a direct message on Twitter.
“hey mr. stover. do you know the assistant principal’s email or number or something. north hasn’t updated the website and i need to get in contact with her or him. i don’t even know who the assistant principal is”
I gave her the names of the assistant principals that could help her. I checked the web site to make sure of the student’s claim, but it had the names of the people I gave her. Yeah, there was no picture of one assistant principal. Yeah, the activities director and site supervisor aren’t correct, but how are you a junior in high school and not know who your assistant principal is? Not blaming the student or the web site or the assistant principals–it just makes me sad that there’s such a disconnect.
Kids are funny otherwise. My formers come by to tell me what they think I want to hear–“Oh, that teacher is no good,” or, “I miss your class,” or, “School is so boring,” or, “Got an A on my first paper.” Okay, I DO like hearing the last part because it means they know I taught them something. But I got into teaching because teachers are, sometimes, not so good and school is, oftentimes, so boring. Working on it.
This can’t be all students have to look forward to.