Run, run very, very fast!

Friday Frazzle

A brilliant coworker expressed a really insightful question today at lunch.

She said, “What I don’t get is why, a week after we had a  thoughtful afternoon of discussion on our recent ‘half day’ inservice about discipline issues, we are  still discussing the problems a week later and ruining our enjoyment of a delicious birthday cake?”  (Happy 50th T.H.!)

It’s a good question.  And it really deserves an answer.  The source of her frustration, as is so often true, is that we all wish “they” would solve the problem, implement the plan, do the leg work, etc.    I believe that it took about five years for “they” to become powerful here at RMS.  I honestly don’t remember so many situations at our school when teachers looked outside themselves for “they” to change things we chose to change.  This attitude very closely relates to the classical characteristics of pessimists.  Pessimists always think someone else will determine their fate.  Pessimists believe they cannot control events,  that “they” are the cause of all their own failures, attitudes and  fears.  Pessimists believe  forces in the world make their lives,  not that they make life in the world.

I don’t think most teachers are ever truly able to wear the “Pessimist’s Mantle” very comfortably.  It’s just not the nature of people  who teach to tolerate lack of autonomy.  So, for whatever reason we as a faculty/staff seem to be in a pessimistic period of time in our thinking,  I’d like to see us put on our “Optimist’s’ Armour” and prove that our thinking is good, our goals for improved behavior and learning climate are worth the effort and be creative and assertive once more.

We have a shiny new Principal, hard-working, focused Vice Principals.  We are rich with personal experience of programs and policies which have worked before and are clever enough to create new ones now.

Oh, and a week of working hard to improve the learning environment and modeling the behaviors we want to encourage can’t possibly leave us ANY TIREDER than we are on any other Friday this year!  This corralling  our wild ones is exhausting.  I came here to teach!

2 comments Posted in  Uncategorized February 20, 2009

Yes, Virginia, there is a “dress code”

If a person (read that, parent) signs a form stipulating that their signature indicates they have read and understood it, then why do they argue about what it means later?

I have sent two students who were inappropriately dressed at school to change their clothes in two days.  One chose to play the old “I’ll just ask the ‘other parent’ game” even having been warned that if she did this I would write a referral for insubordination.  The second snuck into our office, called home and them got in my face saying that I could just talk to her mother.  Well, nonny, nonny, poo-pooh, to you too!  Needless to say both of these students ended up dealing with administrator’s about policy their parents and the students said they understood, in writing, at beginning of school year.

Why do we continually fight this same battle?  When do we (teachers, administrators, etc.) finally get to quit spending time on this?  Why do parents and their kids think that they should be mad at us?  Do they really NOT understand the code or the reasons behind it?  Are we simply not making ourselves clear?   Or do  they choose to fight this fight for some reason we don’t understand?  How do we turn this around?

I think anything like this discipline issue which revisits us perpetually needs to be solved with a final solution…, it’s just one more thing that distracts students and teachers from the business at hand.

3 comments Posted in  Uncategorized February 12, 2009

More New Things To Do…

Why in the world, do we say, “Yes”!, when asked to do something MORE than we already do?

Is it a lack of self-control, a driving need to grow, or possibly a characteristic common to the personality of teachers?

4 comments Posted in  Uncategorized February 4, 2009