Student-Free Days

Student-free days are those wonderful occasions where teachers get together and work as a team to set new standards in education. Led by an intrepid administrative team, whose experience is invaluable in these situations, each shareholder is privy to a learning experience that is like “trickle-down teachonomics,” where teachers are able to take away lessons and information that can be used in their classrooms, and beyond. Everybody wins, from the administration down to the teachers, which is passed down to students, the community, and the brand of the school, in general.
Our student-free day did not go perfectly. It was nice to be fed by ROTC–the kids were really nice and attentive and professional and doled out food to the masses. It was somewhat downhill after that. The 10 presentations that we didn’t get to do in our last WASC-oriented late start were done here. 10 presentations on the same thing. We did have a group do a parody of “YMCA,” though. YMCA? WASC? Pretty good stuff to see colleagues out there having some fun.
We worked on our vision statement after that. We were given slogans from major companies, which is not bad to pull from, since it gives the public an easy slogan to memorize. But of the ten slogans that were given to us, two were the exact same one, five of them used “engages” as their verb, “primer” was used instead of “premier,” and the visions kept referring to “all” students, as if everyone falls into similar categories. We wrote some slogans down on papers and submitted them–we vote tomorrow.
There was group work, where each person tried to remember letters on a pyramid. After we determined that it was hard to do that as an individual, the group worked together and remembered all the letters. It’s a good reminder that, sometimes, groups can get done what individuals can’t.
The highlight was our principal singing. He sang a song called “The Drinking Gourd,” about the Underground Railroad and how the drinking gourd was code for the Big Dipper. It happened. He sang a capella, but did get some help from adults with the chorus. Usually, I would have something snarky to write, and others kind of snickered here and there, but even though the piece didn’t necessarily fit with what we were doing, he put himself out there. There’s something to be said about that, especially in front of a crowd that would probably not do the same thing.
The non-highlight was the subject of norms. I forget the exact norm we were discussing, but it was tabled for later because it was said that it might make some people uncomfortable. Uncomfortable? Here we all were, in a room together, trying to make our school a place that parents would want to send their students, and we were worried about adults being uncomfortable. It’s a word that came up last year and affected me. Things were written, more things were written, something needed to be done, but the buck was passed until the subject died because people were uncomfortable.
You see, we are uncomfortable when we do things that are wrong, or when we wrong certain people. But you discuss, you see where people were coming from, you adapt and adjust, and maybe you figure things out so people aren’t uncomfortable. We are better than this. We are adults who don’t need trigger warnings or safe spaces. We all have feelings, but there are also facts.
Close with the positive–our principal sang today. I was uncomfortable for him, but I always am when people sing in public. Guess what? Despite my comfort level, it is done, time has passed, and the past is not happening right now.