Skip to main content

Make Sense

OK, for the second of my comprehensive two-part program to improve the district I used to work in, I propose that we all try to Make Sense.  If you think that is an obvious point, you clearly have not worked in this district.

1. The person in charge of subbing shouldn't sign people up for jobs and then not tell them about it, making it impossible for them to show up.
2. More than one person in the district should know how to reset the clocks.
3. The district should not require time travel in order to get all professional development days completed.
4. If you want kids to do projects using the Internet, you have to provide computers and Internet access.
5. It rains sometimes.  We need a plan.
6. Assessing children on math concepts that haven't been taught yet makes no sense.  And is incredibly frustrating.
7. If you build a playground and then don't let the kids play on it, they get sad.  And parents get angry.
8. Why would you spend a ton of money to open small schools  all over the district just to close them again?
9. It's not that hard to get names of schools right on signs.
10. More time travel required.

I welcome any other suggestions on either this or the Be Nicer post.   Again, this is not universal - there are very nice people who make sense.  However, there are enough people who are not nice and make no sense that make a lot of us crazy.  And then we have to leave to get un-crazy.

Four years ago: National Day of the Teacher

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Loss

  (I have been putting off finishing this blog post for months. You'll see why)  Today, I was cleaning a bookshelf and I found the journal from one of my third-grade students, who I call Fred in my book , in 2001. I still had it because he didn't come to the last day of school to get his stuff this year and I guess it got put in a pile and somehow I've kept it with me.  He didn't come to the last day of school, probably because his family was a mess: dad in prison, mom in an abusive relationship, all the kids (understandably) acting out violently. Fred was expelled from our school in second grade for hitting a teacher. Then he was expelled from the other school, I don't know why, at the end of second grade. He came back on the condition from the administration that he be in my class because I had him as a student in first grade and he listened to me and worked well with me.  We had a really good relationship, although Fred was definitely not easy to have in class....

A New Prison, Part Two

  Second very long part of the prison visit report.   After we got all the paperwork filled out and went through the metal detector, we got visitation slips with the name of the inmate, and made our way over to the other building for visitation. This is not maximum security so thankfully you can just sit next to the inmates, and not be separated by glass or have to use a telephone to talk.    First, you get a gate unlocked and go into a holding pen that is of course in direct sunlight (or rain if it's that season) and surrounded by fences topped with razor wire. You wait there until the gate at the other end is unlocked. This holding pen was a little bigger and less claustrophobic than the other prison (I do not have any claustrophobia and I came very close to a panic attack once at the other place) and they opened the other gate more quickly. Then you walk, again in blazing sunlight (or rain) to the visitation building. This one was less of a walk than the other pri...

The Best Mistake

I recently wanted to get a pedicure (I promise this will be important) and was looking at nail salons nearby. I knew there was a place called Kim's Nails near my exercise class, so I quickly googled to see if I could make an appointment online (I hate calling on the phone) and it let me, so I made an appointment for a few days later and went on with my day. Later that day, I got a text confirming my appointment and I realized that I had made the appointment at the wrong Kim's Nails! I meant to make an appointment for the one in my city and I made one at a nail shop in the next city over (Kim's Nails is a common business name). Because I had already made the appointment and they had taken the time to text me, I figured I'd just go with it. OK, if you're still with me, this is where it gets exciting! A few hours after I got the confirmation text, the owner of Kim's Nails texted me again. the text just said, "Are you a teacher?" I didn't know why they...