Columbus Day

Christopher Columbus.  How I love you!  Because of you, I don't have to go outside of my house to work tomorrow!   (I'm sure I'll find plenty of work inside!)

At our school, we have a very complicated schedule of how to get close to 1000 students into and out of all of their non-core classes and lunch, which is called a 6-day cycle.  This also allows every grade level to go to these "specials" classes at the same time, which delights the teachers.  It has become so complicated that we have to have a binder in the office with a listing of each student and his/her grade level and their team number and letter.  Then, we have a set of tables to use to figure out exactly where each little darling is studying movement or music or art or dance.  This year, thanks to the fact that one of our specials teachers is a techie, the specials "DAY" is shown all day on each and every television, alternating with the lunch schedule, the announcements, coming events and generally a nice picture or two.  On Friday, the teacher found the coolest picture for Columbus Day!  It was a picture of two ships sailing toward a cliff and one of the ships was in the process of falling off the edge of the world.  I didn't hear any concerns about whether it was a little too frightening for the youngest and most sensitive of our students, but it was a great picture. 

Monday, Monday

So, why is a Monday such a dreaded day?  

I think a Monday, in itself, isn't so bad.  I think the dreaded part is that it feels like it is so far from Friday.

Here in lovely Fairfax County, elementary school kids get off school early on Mondays.  It is supposed to allow the teachers to have time to "collaborate," and "plan,"  and whatever else they do.  I can't exactly say what the teachers do during their Monday afternoons, but they have now progressed to the point that they get substitutes to collaborate and plan on other days of the week.  We've got to be the most collaborative, planned group that has ever existed.  

Of course, we're also known for having a very tough school system and we turn out lots of wonderful high school graduates.  Of course, high school is a long way from elementary school.  

I'm totally against the idea of trying to teach kids that school is fun.  School is hard work sometimes, when you are surrounded by your peers, I guess, but that in itself isn't always fun.  Learning is fun.  And to learn, one must work.  I think a lot of kids feel like they have been deceived when they reach about third grade and find that those multiplications tables are no fun at all and that there is no easy way to learn them.  I still have trouble remembering some of the 6s, 7s, and 8s.  I get them eventually, but I have to think about them.   

Two down...

Man, this year is going slowly!  

As a team-building exercise this year, we all got little buckets.  Little tin buckets with our names on them.  The rest of the staff got an explanation and a bunch of large drop-shaped papers and they knew what the little buckets were for.  We, in the office, have made our official "team" motto:  "Last to know, first to get blamed."  So, we had the little buckets and no idea why.  I had nicknamed them "little buckets o' blame" for the fact that we really do get blamed for everything, whether we had anything to do with the problem or  not.  

When I arrived today, however, I had a little drop paper in my bucket that had a nice thing on it.  Something about my greeting this anonymous person with a smile every day.   (If I'm grumpy some day, will that drop evaporate????)  Then, later, one of my APs put another drop in the bucket.  Apparently, the buckets are supposed to be places where you can give each other kudos.  Some day, when I have nothing to do, I'll think of something nice someone has done and give them a drop.  If I can find their bucket.  Which will be in their locked classroom unless they are in said classroom, which will make the drop not a surprise.  

Okay, there's a fire drill tomorrow.  Our first of the  year.  We must have one per week for the first four weeks, then one a month for the rest of the year.  It is a wonder we get anything else done.  I'm generally in charge of the grunt work for the fire drills and tomorrow we'll see how many mistakes I've made updating the lists and procedures.  We have a crazy-huge population for an elementary school, so seldom do these things go off without some sort of fire faux pas.  You must call one phone number ten minutes before the drill, then another number when the fire drill is pulled and get outside.  Sometimes someone decides they have too much work and they are just going to stay indoors.  Sometimes the fire department comes anyway and they inspect the building.  If they find someone inside, the fire drill doesn't count and we have to do it all over again.  So much planning takes place prior to the drill!  It can't be a day when we have visitors (groups) or when we are testing.  It needs to be while groups are in classes and not in the halls.  The weather needs to be just right.   It needs to be before lunches begin (10:50 a.m.) or after they end (1:40) and not between 1 and 2, when the Head Start kids are napping.  It also can't be after 10:30 a.m. since that is when the cafeteria staff eats their "lunch."  Mondays are out entirely since our student's day ends at 12:45 on Mondays.    What a pain.  When I'm queen, I'm just gonna walk out in the hall and pull the lever.  Done.  That is how fires happen, anyway.  

We did have a fire once.  Or twice.  One time was just as our renovations were being completed and an electrical closet caught fire.  It was a week before school was to begin, though, so it didn't count.  :-|  The second one was odd.  In the office, we smelled smoke and couldn't decide where it was coming from.  Finally, the Principal decided to just call 911 and pull the fire alarm to evacuate the building.  The FD arrived and we told them about the smell.  They went into the office with a weird-looking gun and pointed it around the room.  A few minutes later, we returned to the office and I noticed that my computer monitor was being taken away.  It had been on fire!  They showed me what it looked like through the weird gun.  Yikes.  I coulda burned up!   

Wish us luck with the Fire Drill.  Oh, yeah.  We are really wild at HW!

First Day of School

Is there any day more depressing than the first day of school?  Okay, stay-at-home moms are not allowed to answer that!  

The phones rang all day long!  We had parents who couldn't wait to get rid of their kids and those who couldn't stand letting their children go to their assigned class alone.  (We are supposed to discourage parents from going to the classrooms because it is so disruptive.  Also, parents have a way of asking the teachers "just one more question...")  I try to direct all of my communications to the student, since I like for the child to have a chance to learn how to talk to adults and I feel that I am a safe person for them to practice on.  Sometimes, the parents won't let their child answer anything.  I feel that such children benefit more from school than from anything else!  

Oh, well, it was the usual crazy day at school.  

One down, 179 to go.

That is really depressing.

"Turkey" day

Today was the annual Thanksgiving dinner day at my school. I work in the office of a VERY busy elementary school. Over 1000 students. The logistics of a regular day's lunch for all 42 classes is astounding, but when you add in the hundreds of parents we get on Turkey day...you can imagine.

I love watching the first classes of the youngest students walking down the hall to lunch wearing the head dressings they have made this week. I saw turkey hats, pilgrim hats, Native American Indian hats, you name it. The little kids generally have BOTH parents visit and everyone eats the turkey from the cafeteria. The Sixth grades send a few volunteers to serve and clean tables for everyone (a job they are usually loathe to do) and very little actual school work is done. They ask for teachers and staff to help serve the food, as the cafeteria staff simply helps keep the serving lines stocked. The teachers/staff who serve usually give out waaaaay too much food, so that the cafeteria manager said she always orders 500 extra meals that day. Otherwise, she says, the last classes would be getting Thanksgiving pizza! She says since the food for the children is subsidized, she only makes profit off of the adult meals. Interesting.

My job is to do attendance, so I am generally too busy to be able (ha!) to help out on the serving lines. I served my time working in food service while I was in college, so for me, the thrill is gone. One of my office colleagues came back from serving with a lunch for me to eat at my desk. That's where I eat anyway, so I was quite appreciative. Another colleague brought me another lunch later. I think I've had my fill of turkey for a while and we haven't even hit Thanksgiving!

Another activity the kids do in the weeks before Thanksgiving is decorate placemats. They have appropriate lessons all about the Pilgrims and lots of those placemats depict that. The office staff helps check to see that nothing inappropriate is drawn. Our office stopped four that we loved, but they weren't ready for prime time. One was a cartoon of Bugs Bunny flinging a pumpkin at a turkey. Another was a rather morbid story of a turkey's life. A third one was an empty ship asail in the ocean and it was entitled, "The Ghost of the Mayflower." The last one was a brightly colored platter with a turkey drawn on it. Its caption read, "The Last Turkey On Earth" and had holes punched in the turkey with the turkey exclaiming, "Oh, no! I'm dead!" See, nothing too awful, but just normal sixth grade boy humor. I laminated those and we'll use them in the office when we need placemats to protect the table. Or at least we'll use them until the administrators take the time to read them and throw them out.

One very nice thing happened today, too. One fifth grade teacher who is, to say the least, innovative, paraded his class throughout the office saying "Thank You!" to every person in the office. This teacher has a most unique academic history including dropping out of high school to travel around in Europe for a year and then coming home to finish his GED. I am sure he had to work very hard to get into a college after that even though he is brilliant and probably had good grades with little effort, but he finished college and spent a few years in the Peace Corps. Wouldn't it be nice if every kid had a chance to have a teacher like that? One day when his fiancee was undergoing medical treatments, I went to stay with his class while he left to take a phone call. He gave them some order and took off. I watched in amazement as they carried on by themselves. One student took over leadership and directed the exercise and the entire class participated the way they would had the teacher been there himself. I think the fact that this is a Gifted and Talented class helped. Anyone who has seen a GT class can attest to the natural competitive nature of these rooms. When my daughter was in General Education classes, she and one or two other kids were the only ones who attempted to answer questions and seemed engaged in the subject. Once she moved to GT, it was a very different atmosphere.

Next week is a short week. And the real Turkey Day!

Ugh

Yep, tomorrow's the day. The first day back at school for the students for the year.

I'll try to not appear down about it, but how can one not be depressed when one looks out over the course of a school year and sees 183 days looming in front of one? Okay. enough of the "one" business. Let's see, why do I hate it?

The noise level in the school building goes up 1 million percent. Every complaint you've ever heard from a teacher is true. Classes are too large. Kids are uninspired. Parents are too busy (not all parents, but enough to make a difference) to help out their own child. I have to see so much neglect that it is sickening. Kids rushing in at least once a week looking like they've been up all night holding cookies in their hands for breakfast.

I do attendance for the kids. Do you know friends who are ALWAYS late? They were probably taught that by their parents. It is crazy how the same kids are late once or twice a week. Those are the parents who can't understand why their kids are not doing well in school and can't pass the state-mandated tests.

I hate the first day of school because there is this "school is fun" mentality that is just a lie after about second grade. School is work and sometimes, just SOMETIMES, learning and knowing is fun.

Ah, yes, it will be a great year.

Ode to Yankee Doodle

Whew! Was I glad to get home from work today!!

There was a major thunderstorm (complete with hail!) yesterday at my school. A couple of trees in neighboring yards had fallen and closed some streets and the remainder of the leaf/branch debris was a little scary looking. When I went into the building, I was told that there was no electrical power in the gymnasium. I am generally the one who does work orders and I am a little mechanically inclined, so they asked me to help the custodian open up a fuse box. Seemed easy enough, right?

None of our keys fit the lock for the fuse box. Our head custodian just retired at the first of May after many, many years of service in this building. Her replacement works nights, but the building is new to him. The second in command is very nice and can handle most of the work, but she is new to the building and speaks (and understands) very little English. Finally, we decided to call the retired expert. She told me we aren't allowed access to that fuse box. I spent about 30 minutes checking every other fuse box I could find and finally went to the gym to see how bad the outage was. I walked in and heard the fans running and every light was on.

Always verify that there is a problem before you spend a lot of effort to solve it.


School is out Monday at 11 a.m., so the teachers are inventing things for the kids to do to entertain them. A teacher found me at lunch time and asked me if I'd help her out later in the day. The second grade classes were having a talent show. The teachers asked different kids what there talent was. Alex wanted to show off his skill at whistling. Another boy in the class had assured the class that whistling was not a talent. This teacher asked if I would come to the class and whistle a song to support him and prove that it was a talent. (I know, that is a reach, but we're talking about second graders.) I love to sing, but I whistle a lot, too.

Okay, about thirty minutes later, Alex was brought to meet with me about our "talent." I asked him what he wanted to whistle. "Ode to Joy" was his response. Wow! I was impressed. He whistled it for me and I really was impressed because he whistled both breathing in and out. He told me that the only song he couldn't whistle was "Yankee Doodle." Okay, that is not my favorite song, but I can't see how it is more difficult than "Ode to Joy." I told him it was pretty plain and couldn't be made fancy very easily, but I whistled it and asked him if he wanted to try it.

"No."

"But I am sure you could whistle it! It isn't that hard! Why can't you sing it?"

He said, "I just don't like that song!" Oh.

We went to the talent show and he whistled his ode to joy and I whistled "Yankee Doodle."

Kids are terrific!