Kids love email!
No surprise, there, but they do. Finally, all have eChalk accounts set up. I got an email thanking me for a thank you note I wrote to a girl for her Christmas gift... it was very sweet.
I have one particular seventh grade class at the end of the day on Tuesday, for a slightly shorter period than normal. They are the slower seventh grade class (by coincidence, not design) and are always very unfocused by the time Tuesday afternoon rolls around. Yesterday, they had only about 15 minutes to use the computers, and then we needed to put them all away, put all the chairs up, pack up school supplies, and go upstairs to their lockers... in a very short window of time. I was staying after to do some work, but I didn't want to put thirty laptops back in the cart by myself. So, I crouched down by the cart and started having kids bring me laptops. This took forever, the kids were really loud, and my homeroom was waiting outside the door to come in and get their coats out of our closets. My principal was teaching them that period, covering for an absent colleague. Did she stick her head in my door to see why it was taking us so long? No. Did she assess the situation and offer to help in any way? No. Instead, she got her own coat, put it on, her own bag, put it on, and then, at exactly 3:10, stood in my doorway and said in a bitchy tone, "Ms. Frizzle, these children need to go home." I was pretty stressed out by that point, but that comment made me livid. Yes, thank you, I am aware that the kids need to go home! But what most pissed me off was that SHE was the one who really wanted to go home, with all her belongings ready, not making any attempt to help, just adding to the pressure. Grrr!
So, I stopped what I was doing, told the seventh graders to line up, and took them up to their lockers. Then I came back upstairs and spent twenty minutes of my own afternoon work time putting laptops back in the goddamn cart. My principal was gone. Incidentally, official work hours for principals are until 5 pm.
Wanted: One really, really good school leader.
I have one particular seventh grade class at the end of the day on Tuesday, for a slightly shorter period than normal. They are the slower seventh grade class (by coincidence, not design) and are always very unfocused by the time Tuesday afternoon rolls around. Yesterday, they had only about 15 minutes to use the computers, and then we needed to put them all away, put all the chairs up, pack up school supplies, and go upstairs to their lockers... in a very short window of time. I was staying after to do some work, but I didn't want to put thirty laptops back in the cart by myself. So, I crouched down by the cart and started having kids bring me laptops. This took forever, the kids were really loud, and my homeroom was waiting outside the door to come in and get their coats out of our closets. My principal was teaching them that period, covering for an absent colleague. Did she stick her head in my door to see why it was taking us so long? No. Did she assess the situation and offer to help in any way? No. Instead, she got her own coat, put it on, her own bag, put it on, and then, at exactly 3:10, stood in my doorway and said in a bitchy tone, "Ms. Frizzle, these children need to go home." I was pretty stressed out by that point, but that comment made me livid. Yes, thank you, I am aware that the kids need to go home! But what most pissed me off was that SHE was the one who really wanted to go home, with all her belongings ready, not making any attempt to help, just adding to the pressure. Grrr!
So, I stopped what I was doing, told the seventh graders to line up, and took them up to their lockers. Then I came back upstairs and spent twenty minutes of my own afternoon work time putting laptops back in the goddamn cart. My principal was gone. Incidentally, official work hours for principals are until 5 pm.
Wanted: One really, really good school leader.
posted by ms. v. at 7:12 PM
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