Another student-free day, but this one started with the refinery having enough issues to elicit a shelter in place. So at least we got to start a half-hour later.
We are still trying to figure out what to do with tardies. There are so many options out there, but some teachers don’t follow the tardy policy so it’s hard to come up with something new. I believe in locking kids out–a tardy sweep, if you will–and rounding up all the kids who couldn’t make it to class by the bell. Tell them beforehand. Remind them over the loudspeaker. They do not like being herded like sheep when locked out of rooms after the tardy bell rings. And, each day we have done this in the past, kids have HUSTLED to class, rather than loping along while staring at their cellphones. I hate tardies, but I have good enough kids where it doesn’t affect me. But, when we’re talking about preparing kids for the real world, just what world rewards you for being late all the time? The sad part of the event was seeing that one of the questions posed on paper read “do to” instead of “due to.” So there was that.
We then went over our disaster drill policy and emergency preparedness handbook. I felt like such a professional as I fished through boxes of binders–unmarked to keep us guessing–until I eventually found mine. Our new site supervisor then read the names of every faculty member, made us stand, and told us what our duties were in case of a disaster. These facts were all on a paper, but he read every name. He also went over the different types of disasters and how the bells would sound. My favorite part was sitting next to my disaster partner. The teacher that now has my partner’s room brought over the binder, which still had the roll sheets from last year’s class. This means that even though we have to turn in our binders, nothing happens with them (except they get put in boxes). Same stuff, same evacuation routes that tell you one route on one page and another route on another.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, sings Roger Daltrey, via Pete Townsend’s words.
We filled out our WASC sheets that dealt with data. Data? I never see any. In our defense, we don’t nationally test anymore, or test in the state, so that hurts. But there’s AP results we never see.
We played a game dealing with PLC’s. There were 18 questions and we had about a minute to answer each one in a multiple-choice format. I kind of liked the kahoot app, but it took a lot of time. Perhaps I can use it with students in a shorter time format.
Lunch (and breakfast from Panera) was good. ROTC comes through every time and are a gem on our campus. The kids do a good job of presenting their brand, which is professional and nice.
We came back from lunch to have the administration reward teachers who collaborate well with peanut M & M’s. They said something nice about four teachers, who, in turn, had to say something nice about someone else. Sadly, I was shut out from receiving anything. The only thing I get rewarded with at school are many students and many different preps. As, Groucho Marx once said–“I wouldn’t want to be a member of any club that would have me as its member.” And if he didn’t say it, Woody Allen used it in either Annie Hall or Manhattan.
Before we broke into our grade-level groups, we got to vote on our slogans/vision statement. There were 40 of them on the walls of the libary–pieces of paper with the slogans stuck on them, stuck on pieces of construction paper–and we had to affix a blue-dot sticker on the ones we liked to represent North High. I was happy to see that Community, Identity, Stability made the Top 40 cut, but did not see many stickers next to it. I guess we don’t have a brave new school.
We quickly moved past all the norms from the day before. The term “tabled for later” was used again, in some format. Hands were raised to show we were a good audience and were back on track. It was all fine and dandy–people are trying.
Tomorrow we are back with our students. Jeff Buckley will sing my thoughts and Leonard Cohen’s.