What Lies Ahead

My principal was told today that she has to attend a three-day principal's conference starting tomorrow. She protested that our school is very small and she has way too much to do to miss three days of school - particularly on one day's notice! Nevertheless, our instructional superintendent told her she has no choice. Interestingly enough, he also wants one of our math teachers to go to a professional development conference on Wednesday. We are putting our foot down (feet down?) on that one: unless he plans on covering her classes, it's just not do-able. So, with our principal gone for three days, we will all teach our normal course load, and keep the school running smoothly, and conduct afterschool. The worst of it is that the conference is about Reader's & Writer's Workshop, which both of our Communication Arts teachers are already implementing so well that our Literacy Consultant says she barely even needs to check on us. One of my colleagues could practically LEAD that conference! And, unlike larger schools, our principal has a pretty good idea what goes on in our classrooms and speaks with us directly about how we are implementing the new curriculum; unlike larger schools, the principal's absence directly affects all of us, as we have no assistant principals.

Then, on Friday, the seventh graders are going on a field trip to the Transit Museum. My principal will be going with them, for slightly complicated reasons relating to which classes would need to be covered if anyone else went.

The inmates are running the asylum this week! (just kidding, we're very responsible)