To tie, or not to tie

We now resume your regularly scheduled programming...

Welcome to the new year, everyone. The new part of the school year that is. Some of us went back to school today. Some of us did not have kids in our classroom today, but still, turn off the lights, the party's over.

Since today IS (technically) Monday, it's time for another INTERACTIVE MONDAY question.

Today, it is this: Does your school have a dress code for teachers, and how do you feel about that? Sort of 2 questions, but I used a comma and a conjunction, so it's only one sentence.

My district has always had a dress code for teachers in the past. From October 1st through around the first week in May, men were required to wear ties, and women to wear hose. Of course, slacks/dresses/button down shirts were the norm.

This year, however, that dress code has not been implemented. We've been on "summer dress code" -- polo shirt and slacks -- all year long. And I'm not complaining.

I really don't know if this is because my administrator is just way behind in directives or if the district just decided not to enforce the policy this year, but I kind of like it. I'd like it better if we got to wear jeans a lot more often, but at least I don't feel like I'm being choked to death by a neck tie every day.

What about where YOU work? Dress code or no? What do you think?

How I Became a Tutor

Thursdays are after-school tutoring days at my school, which just makes them about the longest days ever -- second only to Parent Conference night. Come to think of it, conferences are always on Thursdays.

Tutoring has not been bad this year, but my morning class really got under my skin today. There are 19 kids, yet it always seems to be the same 3 or 4 raising their hands and answering questions. When I call on others, they stare blankly at me or they give me crazy answers. Yet these same kids don't pay any attention to the kids who give correct answers. Very frustrating.

We also went on a field trip today. We went to the Dallas Children's Theater to see their production of How I Became a Pirate.

I enjoyed it. We had read the story earlier this week, so it was fun to note the differences and similarities between the two. We'll be doing a compare and contrast in class later, so it will be interesting to see what the kids come up with.

There was a 10 minute intermission during the play, during which 3 kids begged me to let them use the bathroom -- despite my very stern warnings before leaving the school that they could NOT go once we were there. When the intermission began, one boy in front of me turned and said, "Man, this is boring! All they are doing is dancing!"

His neighbor argued that he thought it was interesting, and the first boy amended his statement to say, "It IS interesting, but it's just a little boring!"

Overall, the kids were really well behaved, and the show was enjoyable. I think the funniest reference was on pirate shouting, "We're gonna need a bigger boat!" when a shark appeared off the bow.

Tomorrow appears to be another shirt and tie day. I really miss casual Fridays. We have them sporadically, but not nearly often enough.

Maybe I can just dress as a pirate and say it's class-related...

Who's driving the car?

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...

Inspiring?

I found out today that one of my posts made someone's list of "100 Incredibly Inspiring Blog Posts for Educators." Oddly enough, it's a post I don't find THAT inspiring, but hey, one man's inspiration is another man's perspiration. Or words to that effect.

Anyway, the post that made the cut was America's Next Top Student, which was a reposting of an earlier education.com article about appropriate and inappropriate dress for kids at school.

Check out the list and you'll also find posts from Joel at So You Want to Teach, Mr. D of I Want to Teach Forever, and Dr. Pezz among many many others.

No shirt, no shoes, no education

This week's Mr. Teacher column over on education.com discusses the dress code that has been put into place in my district. This code was put into place about three years ago. Before, kids wore whatever they wanted. Since, kids wear a white shirt with a collar and blue or tan bottoms. That's the elementary dress code, at least. Middle school students and high school students wear something different.

The column is all about what impact (if any) this change in policy has affected. If you work in a district that has a dress code, weigh in with your thoughts on the matter!

The shirt tail vigilante

Now that Dallas ISD has a student dress code, teachers have become the unofficial enforcers of that code. Most of the kids do wear the collared shirts like they're supposed to, but many if not most of them have a huge problem with tucking their shirts in.

Every year, I tell myself that that is a battle I'm not going to fight because it's just not worth the time and effort. And every year, I get annoyed when I see someone's shirt untucked five seconds after I have just watched them tuck it in.

This year, instead of just ordering the kids to tuck their shirts in every time I see a violation, I have taken to calling names. I tell the kids, "Please don't be a Slobby McSlopslop with your shirt untucked. I'd like to see Spiffy McNeato with the shirt tucked in!"

So whenever I see one of my kids with his/her shirt tail out, I just say, "Hi, Slobby." They instantly know what this means, and tuck their shirt in. When my kids come in with their shirts tucked in, I say, "Look at all of these Spiffy McNeatos I have!"

Truth be told, I can't say that this has caused the kids to uphold the dress code anymore than they did before. But it does add a little humor to the situation. Now I just have to deal with the Talky McBlabbermouths, Snitchy McTattletales, and Burpy McFlatuents...