There has been massive craziness going on at my school, and perhaps in my whole district. You know the saying, "When you fail to plan, you plan to fail?" Maybe that needs to be posted out in front of the school.
Everything is short notice. THIS is happening tomorrow. I need THAT by the end of the day. THE OTHER is due an hour from now.
This particular week is a 3-day week for us in Dallas ISD. We had a student holiday/staff development day on Monday, and Friday is elementary school Fair Day. So we get 3 days with the students. The students who aren't out sick, anyway.
But then we're told that several of us are going to be required to attend an off campus subject-level meeting today, on Wednesday. Granted, we were told this LAST week, not just yesterday, but we were also told that somebody would cover our classes and teach the kids in our absence.
That was changed, and instead my kids just went to the auditorium to watch a movie from 1:45-3:00, along with all of the other kids whose teachers got pulled out for one of these meetings.
Talk about a waste of instructional time!!
Then there was the whole fiasco of what the meetings were actually going to be ABOUT! We knew that there would be discussions of the common assessments that were given about 3 weeks ago. But yesterday we were told that we had to compile all of the data for percentage wrong on each question. Then today, we were told that we needed to know percentages for each answer choice.
By the time I left the school, I didn't even have any of the data and felt like I was walking blind into the meeting.
Thankfully, the meeting was pretty good, the teachers there shared a lot of good strategies and we all agreed that the test was pretty poorly made and poorly timed. :)
But I lost out on quite a bit of time with my kids that I really needed to review for their 6-weeks assessment tomorrow! (Did I mention that this 3 day week comes at the very end of the first grading period?)
Also, I was almost the only guy in the whole building wearing a tie. I'm just saying. The dress code is NOT enforced everywhere...
My wife sells jewelry! Treat yourself to some bling!
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8 comments:
Ties are evil. I think maybe I should go to a thrift shop and buy some ties from the 60's and 70's and wear those to work. Maybe they'll start asking me to stop wearing ties.
It is stories like this going on all around our country, not just your school. This is why I don't think the plan to add more hours and days to the school year will be the right course of action. Instead we need to let teachers get back to quality teaching! Thanks for a great post!
Teachers are not required to wear ties. Look up the policy. It actually says male teachers will wear appropriate attire "such as" shirt and tie. I hate to get technical with the language, but "such as" is a suggestion, not a requirement.
I agree that the dress code is not enforced everywhere -- even on the same campus. However, Wednesday (9/30) was the last day of summer dress code which makes ties optional for men. Perhaps that is the discrepancy.
To the anonymous blogger who wrote that teachers are not required to wear ties. You are incorrect. Board policy states, and I quote, "Male professionals shall wear a dress shirt, tie, dress slacks, or other appropriate professional clothing with a tie."
All board policy is available online at DISD. Just select the School Board link and at the very bottom of the page, click on the link for TASB -- Make sure that you choose the local policy link when you reach the page.
I stand corrected. They must have changed that at some point. Oh well, time to break out my bolo tie. (It doesn't say what kind of tie.)
I'm not worried though. I have a feeling my 100% TAKS passing rate and 75% commended rate will prevent my principal from giving me too much grief for wearing a polo shirt without a tie.
I just came across your blog and I can already tell I'm going to be back, alot, if not to read your great posts, to read this "witty rejoinders." At this time, there are six here and five are about wearing ties. Four of those are actually a conversation between a couple or three people about dress code in the district. Sheesh, like the tie or no tie decision stacks up against a cafeteria full of children watching a movie. Pat seemed to understand your post. Hopefully Anonymous, is the plural Anony-mouses? will get it. I teach in a tie, now after 30 years admittedly not every day, but have my entire career and to my knowledge, have never been required to. Like Harry Wong said, "Show up in the attire that says you're a professional." But puh lease, the children were watching a movie. No tie is going to make up for that.
Mike
Teacher Food
Mike, it's all about priorities! :)
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