Friday, February 4, 2000 – One of our students hasn’t been in school all week. The parents say the child has a cold. I think school refusal might be part of it. It is very possible that the parents will blame us for this again even though it has gone very well while the child has been here. Who knows how this will turn out? I was on stand-by at Hills last week and had all kinds of trouble out there. When that happens it takes a lot of time from Longfellow. PTA met last night. The president continues to be very cold towards me and only speaks if she wants something. Staff anxiety seems to be going up here. This seems to happen about every year at this time although this seems to be a little early. Lots of complaining about things and making demands of the secretary and sometimes me.
Tuesday, February 15, 2000 – We had a formal lunch yesterday for Valentines Day and it went very well. This is the second year that we have done this. The school board continues to press for what they call measurable “ends policies.” I think Deming called that rear view mirror driving but I guess we are going to do it anyway. I prefer to build the quality in all the away along. Actually, I think we are already doing that and we have way too many people outside of education telling us what we ought to be doing. One of our frequently absent students is back in school and doing ok though he has had a few problems. One teacher has been unhappy about her assignment all year and can’t seem to move on. The CAO has now given her an associate, but she is still unhappy. Her schedule is not all that bad even thought she goes to three buildings she has 70 minutes of prep daily just at Longfellow but she can’t see that. I don’t think she will stay in the district after this year. Compared to the rest of the Longfellow staff she is not a very hard worker and doesn’t put out the effort that many of them do. She simply is mad about having to serve three schools and can’t get past that. She has made it hard on the rest of our staff. We got our staffing projections for next year. The numbers are not nearly as good as I had hoped. At the primary our ratio is 6.78. We now have 7.0 and I had hoped to have that again. At 3-6 it is 6.90. I hoped it would be much higher…at least 7.0. I don’t know what will happen, but I don’t think half sections will be a popular option. I’ll talk with the site council about it next week.
Thursday, February 17, 2000 – I did storytelling last night at Twain for their Read-In. it was fun and it went well. I used my new poem “Gentle Bill” for the first time and it went over well. I still have to work on getting in memorized but am pleased that it went so well. A frequently absent student refused to come to school yesterday and today. We tried typing a list of things she does well to boost his confidence but she still didn’t want to come in. Forecasts are for heavy snow tonight. Tomorrow is a conference day so I don’t know what will happen.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
90s50 Happy New Year
Tuesday, January 4, 2000 – We are all back from winter break. The Y2K glitches that were forecast by many just didn’t happen. The new year seems to be off to a good start. We have lost some students but are also picking up some. Several of them are ESL students so that will help our numbers in that area. We need to hire a 3-hour office associate and a 6-hour one-on-one associate. Hopefully, we can find some good candidates for those positions.
Wednesday, January 12, 2000 – Rumors are that the parents in one of our families’ have separated. These are the parents who gave us so much trouble at the beginning of the year and questioned everything we did. One was upset about having three and a half sections at third/fourth grade, about supervision during recess and on field trips and about everything else. For a while they wanted their fourth grader moved up to fifth grade. I will not be surprised if it is true because they seemed to be so tense and uptight all of the time. Too bad for the kids! We have all felt they certainly needed some counseling. Hopefully this is getting some help.
Friday, January 21, 2000 – A challenging student is back this week and has done very well. The associate is working out well. The child’s mother called me last week and said she didn’t know anything about the child coming back and ask how we were handling it and what accommodations we were making. That caught me off guard because I called her the week before and explained the whole thing and told her who the associate would be. We had all agreed on the accommodations at the December 9, meeting so I don’t know what she was talking about? It has worked out fine and she is coming in next Tuesday to talk about the schedule. Teacher observations have gone well and I am pretty much on schedule.
Monday, January 24, 2000 – A parent came in at the end of the day today. She told me that another parent had pressured her to write a letter against me. She said she reluctantly did but did not say what the other person wanted her to say. She said she also met with Superintendent about it. She said she told him we had some disagreements but that she thought I was very good with kids and the staff and that she didn’t think I did as well with parents. She said other person wanted me removed but that she didn’t support that. She was feeling guilty about doing all this behind my back and wanted me to know about it. It is very interesting that she would come in and tell me this. I do know that the other parent has tried to get several others to write letters but hasn’t had much success. It is sad that this person can’t move on. This parent has alienated many parents and staff but somehow still believes they are on her side. I really haven’t felt the need to fight back because I just don’t think it would be productive but I do think this person is a dangerous threat. This person has dramatic mood swings that many have noticed. I’m not sure this person’s mental health is all that good. This is probably going to be like this the rest of the time their children are here.
Wednesday, January 12, 2000 – Rumors are that the parents in one of our families’ have separated. These are the parents who gave us so much trouble at the beginning of the year and questioned everything we did. One was upset about having three and a half sections at third/fourth grade, about supervision during recess and on field trips and about everything else. For a while they wanted their fourth grader moved up to fifth grade. I will not be surprised if it is true because they seemed to be so tense and uptight all of the time. Too bad for the kids! We have all felt they certainly needed some counseling. Hopefully this is getting some help.
Friday, January 21, 2000 – A challenging student is back this week and has done very well. The associate is working out well. The child’s mother called me last week and said she didn’t know anything about the child coming back and ask how we were handling it and what accommodations we were making. That caught me off guard because I called her the week before and explained the whole thing and told her who the associate would be. We had all agreed on the accommodations at the December 9, meeting so I don’t know what she was talking about? It has worked out fine and she is coming in next Tuesday to talk about the schedule. Teacher observations have gone well and I am pretty much on schedule.
Monday, January 24, 2000 – A parent came in at the end of the day today. She told me that another parent had pressured her to write a letter against me. She said she reluctantly did but did not say what the other person wanted her to say. She said she also met with Superintendent about it. She said she told him we had some disagreements but that she thought I was very good with kids and the staff and that she didn’t think I did as well with parents. She said other person wanted me removed but that she didn’t support that. She was feeling guilty about doing all this behind my back and wanted me to know about it. It is very interesting that she would come in and tell me this. I do know that the other parent has tried to get several others to write letters but hasn’t had much success. It is sad that this person can’t move on. This parent has alienated many parents and staff but somehow still believes they are on her side. I really haven’t felt the need to fight back because I just don’t think it would be productive but I do think this person is a dangerous threat. This person has dramatic mood swings that many have noticed. I’m not sure this person’s mental health is all that good. This is probably going to be like this the rest of the time their children are here.
90s49 More Difficulties
Friday, December 10, 1999 – Today I met with Longfellow Key, our before and after school program, to talk about concerns they have with a difficult parent. This parent has been rude to them and demanding of their space for PTA functions. Apparently, this parent told them the PTA had priority of their program and they would just have to work around the PTA events. I assured him that was not true and that if it happened again he should refer them to the office. He said the Key board of directors was upset about the issue. Once again a difficult parent feels compelled to make the lives of others miserable unnecessarily.
Another parent meeting went fairly well. At least, there were no major outbursts. We are just giving in and doing everything they ask. As long as they get their way they are happy. It’s too bad for the child, but I think everyone is afraid of these people. Besides, what do we know? We have only successfully educated thousands of children.
Friday, December 17, 1999 – Today is the last day of school for this century. Students will be out two weeks. We are losing an associate over the break. He will be going to Mann (maybe?) and we will be hiring a 3-hour and a 6-hour associate. He was not very popular here or at the building where he was before. He doesn’t have good social skills. I hope things work out for him. I am going to be working 3 days each week over break. I hope to get a lot done.
Tuesday, December 21, 1999 – It now appears that the associate I mentioned earlier will be going to his original building instead of Mann. The CAO changed their mind on that one. I think Mann may have complained so much that they decided to send him back to the original building. I’m sure they won’t like that. Interesting implications from this include if you don’t like somebody bad enough you don’t have to take them. Actually, I don’t think the Mann staff ever met him. His reputation was just too much for them.
Friday was the last day here for one of the difficult kids we have come to love. As always, it is hard to let them go. He will be going to the BD program at Lemme. We will miss him but I’m sure it is the best for him.
I think I have finished the first round of teacher observations and am planning on working on the baseline competencies this week and next while there isn’t anybody around to interrupt me.
We have read and heard a lot lately about the y2k implications. That is short to what might happen when the calendar roles over to 2000. Apparently, many believed it would have a dramatic effect on computers.
Another parent meeting went fairly well. At least, there were no major outbursts. We are just giving in and doing everything they ask. As long as they get their way they are happy. It’s too bad for the child, but I think everyone is afraid of these people. Besides, what do we know? We have only successfully educated thousands of children.
Friday, December 17, 1999 – Today is the last day of school for this century. Students will be out two weeks. We are losing an associate over the break. He will be going to Mann (maybe?) and we will be hiring a 3-hour and a 6-hour associate. He was not very popular here or at the building where he was before. He doesn’t have good social skills. I hope things work out for him. I am going to be working 3 days each week over break. I hope to get a lot done.
Tuesday, December 21, 1999 – It now appears that the associate I mentioned earlier will be going to his original building instead of Mann. The CAO changed their mind on that one. I think Mann may have complained so much that they decided to send him back to the original building. I’m sure they won’t like that. Interesting implications from this include if you don’t like somebody bad enough you don’t have to take them. Actually, I don’t think the Mann staff ever met him. His reputation was just too much for them.
Friday was the last day here for one of the difficult kids we have come to love. As always, it is hard to let them go. He will be going to the BD program at Lemme. We will miss him but I’m sure it is the best for him.
I think I have finished the first round of teacher observations and am planning on working on the baseline competencies this week and next while there isn’t anybody around to interrupt me.
We have read and heard a lot lately about the y2k implications. That is short to what might happen when the calendar roles over to 2000. Apparently, many believed it would have a dramatic effect on computers.
Monday, March 01, 2010
90s48 Distractions
Sometimes I think we got what we asked for. We wanted more government support for education. We got it but along with it came more rules and regulations. We wanted more parent involvement in their children’s education. We got it and along with it came more parents second-guessing and questioning.
Hours are spent responding to government rules and parent interactions. Much of that time could be better spent actually preparing to work and working with students.
Parent interaction is important. We should be partners in the education of all children. Some of the required paperwork is good. Our decisions should be data driven. But, when parents and government requirements occupy large percentages of your time, it is not productive.
Tuesday, November 30, 1999 – I have done 4 or 5 evaluations so far and have about that many more to do in the first round. I hope to have them done soon. I got a rather long email from an upset parent yesterday outlining his frustration with the staff and me. I wrote him a response but doubt that it will satisfy him. I also CCed the letter and my response to our acting Assistant Superintendent. The Central Office has been silent on this. I think because this person is prominent in the community. We are kind of out on a limb here. I hope no one cuts it off. I have noticed the pre-holiday stress level of parents and staff going up lately. It seems to be this way every year.
Friday, December 3, 1999 – I am looking forward to deer hunting tomorrow. It is rainy today so I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow. I have heard we may get snow on Sunday. That wouldn’t hurt. All is quiet at school today.
Wednesday, December 8, 1999 – I have heard many more complaints from parents about the way one parent does things and how rude he/she is to them. They have also said this person is back on the issue of the meeting last spring and the perception of how I treated him/her. This person is still trying to get parents and staff members to take their side on the issue. It is making a lot of people very uncomfortable. He/She just can’t seem to move on. I’m sure we will have to deal with this for a long time. Many parents have told me they are not involved with PTA because of this person. Too bad! We need their support and I hate to see one person driving people away. This person clearly wants to control everything they can and is frustrated that I won’t let that happen.
We have a meeting about a difficult student on Thursday. I hope it goes better than the last one. The parents are so angry with us and the people at Child Psych. have not helped. We do really want to do what is best for the child but the parents are not able to look at the issues objectively. Hopefully we can work through this? This time of the year is always stressful for staff and parents. Me, too, sometimes. I’ll be glad when winter break is here. I do plan to work over the break to get some work done.
Hours are spent responding to government rules and parent interactions. Much of that time could be better spent actually preparing to work and working with students.
Parent interaction is important. We should be partners in the education of all children. Some of the required paperwork is good. Our decisions should be data driven. But, when parents and government requirements occupy large percentages of your time, it is not productive.
Tuesday, November 30, 1999 – I have done 4 or 5 evaluations so far and have about that many more to do in the first round. I hope to have them done soon. I got a rather long email from an upset parent yesterday outlining his frustration with the staff and me. I wrote him a response but doubt that it will satisfy him. I also CCed the letter and my response to our acting Assistant Superintendent. The Central Office has been silent on this. I think because this person is prominent in the community. We are kind of out on a limb here. I hope no one cuts it off. I have noticed the pre-holiday stress level of parents and staff going up lately. It seems to be this way every year.
Friday, December 3, 1999 – I am looking forward to deer hunting tomorrow. It is rainy today so I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow. I have heard we may get snow on Sunday. That wouldn’t hurt. All is quiet at school today.
Wednesday, December 8, 1999 – I have heard many more complaints from parents about the way one parent does things and how rude he/she is to them. They have also said this person is back on the issue of the meeting last spring and the perception of how I treated him/her. This person is still trying to get parents and staff members to take their side on the issue. It is making a lot of people very uncomfortable. He/She just can’t seem to move on. I’m sure we will have to deal with this for a long time. Many parents have told me they are not involved with PTA because of this person. Too bad! We need their support and I hate to see one person driving people away. This person clearly wants to control everything they can and is frustrated that I won’t let that happen.
We have a meeting about a difficult student on Thursday. I hope it goes better than the last one. The parents are so angry with us and the people at Child Psych. have not helped. We do really want to do what is best for the child but the parents are not able to look at the issues objectively. Hopefully we can work through this? This time of the year is always stressful for staff and parents. Me, too, sometimes. I’ll be glad when winter break is here. I do plan to work over the break to get some work done.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
90s47 Busy Schedule
Monday, November 8, 1999 – My Dad fell down the basement steps on Halloween. He received a serious cut on the forehead and was up here in U of I Hospital all week. He is doing much better now and is in skilled nursing care in New London for about a week. In the meantime things have gone pretty well at Longfellow. We didn’t get a troubled family we were expecting so that is a break in our favor. This morning we met with another tough family and that meeting went well. They have wanted acceleration for one of their children, but it is not going to happen. Relations with the disgruntled parent who complained to the the superintendent and the board have been better lately. You never know what this person will do so that could change at anytime. I am really trying to avoid conflict with him if at all possible. I am meeting with the PTA Exec. Board today to discuss PTA projects.
Friday, November 12, 1999 – Things have been fairly calm this week. The PTA is having their fall dinner tonight. I am planning on going and helping for an hour or so and then Becky and I are going out to dinner. This one is always hard for teachers because many have other plans for Friday evenings, but feel somewhat obligated to attend things like this. Night activities extend the day for the teachers. In this case it extends the week for them. It is early enough that it doesn’t take up their whole evening. I don’t know how many will participate. It will upset the PTA President if there are not a lot of our staff there. The PTA also wants to have their pajama night on a Friday night early in December. That is a busy time so we have encouraged them to consider having it in January or February. In the past it has been in the middle of November and not many teachers have participated.
Tuesday, November 23, 1999 – We had a meeting at Child Psych. last night regarding one of our students. It didn’t go well! One of the parents became very upset and directed most of the anger at me. I was simply trying to defend the teachers. That person still insists that there would be no problems if we do the accommodations. We do try to do all of the accommodations but that is difficult when we are serving so many kids. Even when we do there are problems. Last spring was a good example of that. We are trying very hard to serve this child and every time something goes wrong the parents think it is our fault. Child Psych. had told us they were going to recommend a more restrictive setting but they did not do that in the meeting. We felt they really turned on the school. The child will probably be coming back to Longfellow after winter break. We are having a transition meeting here on December 9, 1999.
Friday, November 12, 1999 – Things have been fairly calm this week. The PTA is having their fall dinner tonight. I am planning on going and helping for an hour or so and then Becky and I are going out to dinner. This one is always hard for teachers because many have other plans for Friday evenings, but feel somewhat obligated to attend things like this. Night activities extend the day for the teachers. In this case it extends the week for them. It is early enough that it doesn’t take up their whole evening. I don’t know how many will participate. It will upset the PTA President if there are not a lot of our staff there. The PTA also wants to have their pajama night on a Friday night early in December. That is a busy time so we have encouraged them to consider having it in January or February. In the past it has been in the middle of November and not many teachers have participated.
Tuesday, November 23, 1999 – We had a meeting at Child Psych. last night regarding one of our students. It didn’t go well! One of the parents became very upset and directed most of the anger at me. I was simply trying to defend the teachers. That person still insists that there would be no problems if we do the accommodations. We do try to do all of the accommodations but that is difficult when we are serving so many kids. Even when we do there are problems. Last spring was a good example of that. We are trying very hard to serve this child and every time something goes wrong the parents think it is our fault. Child Psych. had told us they were going to recommend a more restrictive setting but they did not do that in the meeting. We felt they really turned on the school. The child will probably be coming back to Longfellow after winter break. We are having a transition meeting here on December 9, 1999.
Monday, February 15, 2010
90s46 Telling Information
(Since my journal entries make reference to real people I have changed the information enough to protect identities.)
Tuesday, October 19, 1999 – I met with an upset parent and the Superintendent last week and it went Ok. I think he got his pound of flesh and I hope we can move on. He has very little support from the rest of the parents and the PTA executive board doesn’t support him. He has been very mean to just about everyone. I will try to work with him but can’t let him run over us on every issue. A student has had a lot of difficulty this fall. He is very verbal with profanity and pulled the fire alarm once. He has also pulled down his pants a couple times. We are meeting with his parents today and hoping they will agree to send him to Circle School at Child Psych. That could really help him! We have another child who is very needy and crying out for attention. He is a first grader. He is very disruptive and has been in time out in the office many times. He is very disruptive here, too. We have sent him home twice and may have to do that more often. We met about him this morning and tried to come up with a plan. Hopefully we can help him, but I think he may end up in a BD classroom.
Friday, October 22, 1999 – The parents have agreed to send their child to Circle School at U of I Hospital. That is good news and should help him and us a great deal. It will be a new beginning and should make a big difference for him. We are excited about it. Still dealing with our difficult first grader. We are hoping to get some help from the AEA and he is going to Child Psych. on Monday for an evaluation. Kids like these two are really difficult for us to deal with. Often we really don’t know what to do and try everything we can think of without much success. We really need more supports in the schools for these kids and their teachers. Hopefully, that will happen. In the meantime I think it often has a negative effect on all the students and staff.
Friday, October 29, 1999 – Two students who used to be at Longfellow have been charged with assault and theft. They are fourth graders in another building and may be returning here. Their case is in the courts and I don‘t know what it will mean. A parent made some comments in a public meeting that have several of our staff members upset. He said he and his wife had spent an inordinate amount of time teaching his children’s teachers how to teach. That is pretty offensive! One staff member has already written him a letter about it. The parents have always thought that if we would just do the right things their child would be fine. Their parenting skills are very weak. Their idea of handling him is giving into him so he tantrums every time he doesn’t get his way. We have a behavior plan in place for our first grader who has major behavior problems. I hope we can help him.
Tuesday, October 19, 1999 – I met with an upset parent and the Superintendent last week and it went Ok. I think he got his pound of flesh and I hope we can move on. He has very little support from the rest of the parents and the PTA executive board doesn’t support him. He has been very mean to just about everyone. I will try to work with him but can’t let him run over us on every issue. A student has had a lot of difficulty this fall. He is very verbal with profanity and pulled the fire alarm once. He has also pulled down his pants a couple times. We are meeting with his parents today and hoping they will agree to send him to Circle School at Child Psych. That could really help him! We have another child who is very needy and crying out for attention. He is a first grader. He is very disruptive and has been in time out in the office many times. He is very disruptive here, too. We have sent him home twice and may have to do that more often. We met about him this morning and tried to come up with a plan. Hopefully we can help him, but I think he may end up in a BD classroom.
Friday, October 22, 1999 – The parents have agreed to send their child to Circle School at U of I Hospital. That is good news and should help him and us a great deal. It will be a new beginning and should make a big difference for him. We are excited about it. Still dealing with our difficult first grader. We are hoping to get some help from the AEA and he is going to Child Psych. on Monday for an evaluation. Kids like these two are really difficult for us to deal with. Often we really don’t know what to do and try everything we can think of without much success. We really need more supports in the schools for these kids and their teachers. Hopefully, that will happen. In the meantime I think it often has a negative effect on all the students and staff.
Friday, October 29, 1999 – Two students who used to be at Longfellow have been charged with assault and theft. They are fourth graders in another building and may be returning here. Their case is in the courts and I don‘t know what it will mean. A parent made some comments in a public meeting that have several of our staff members upset. He said he and his wife had spent an inordinate amount of time teaching his children’s teachers how to teach. That is pretty offensive! One staff member has already written him a letter about it. The parents have always thought that if we would just do the right things their child would be fine. Their parenting skills are very weak. Their idea of handling him is giving into him so he tantrums every time he doesn’t get his way. We have a behavior plan in place for our first grader who has major behavior problems. I hope we can help him.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
90s45 Facing New Challenges
As a teacher and as an administrator I have always tried to maintain a calm controlled environment in the places I have worked. I have tried to never be angry with students but only angry about inappropriate behavior. I have tried to deal with disagreement about or among students, staff and the school community in general in a dignified respectful way. I always felt that a lot of eyes were watching me and it was my duty to face challenges in the most mature way possible. If I as an educational leader couldn’t do it, who could?
Early on this fall we faced challenges of all kinds! We opened the year unable to use 3 classrooms until the middle of September. We had three and a half sections at third/fourth grade and that was unpopular with parents especially when the half time teacher went full time in another building and we had to hire another person. Several parents went to school board about it and the use of half time teachers were referred to for a long time after as the “Longfellow problem.” Half sections eventually became common in the district. It didn’t hurt that the new half-time person I hired turned out to be incredibly popular.
One afternoon we had a group of Japanese visitors in our school. We have had several here before from many different countries and it is always a rewarding experience. On more than one occasion I have asked the foreign visitors why they are visiting our schools since theirs are supposed to be so good. Without exception, they have all said they would like to have their schools be more like ours. A strange comment since so often we hear how our schools should be more like theirs.
A parent went to the superintendent to complain about me. I expected it but was still somewhat surprised by this behavior. This person is a tough one to figure and so very unpredictable. This person has alienated most of the school community and I have received an number of complaints. Many other parents and teachers are afraid of this person. I hope to talk with the superintendent about this person sometime next week.
Another parent threatened us today by saying she would file child endangerment charges against us for not supervising her kindergartner during indoor recess. The truth is the child was supervised. This parent second-guesses us on everything and it is getting very tiresome. I don’t know why she continues to enroll her kids here if she is so unhappy with us? This is going to make an old man out of me!
At this point I began to wonder what would happen next. All the distractions from parents kept the school on edge and you could feel the tension in the building. For one reason or another some people get some sort of satisfaction out of the turmoil they create. Unfortunately it disrupts the learning environment for a lot of kids. The behavior is unforgivable in a lot of respects and makes me angry when I think about it. There must surely be a special place in hell for people like this.
Early on this fall we faced challenges of all kinds! We opened the year unable to use 3 classrooms until the middle of September. We had three and a half sections at third/fourth grade and that was unpopular with parents especially when the half time teacher went full time in another building and we had to hire another person. Several parents went to school board about it and the use of half time teachers were referred to for a long time after as the “Longfellow problem.” Half sections eventually became common in the district. It didn’t hurt that the new half-time person I hired turned out to be incredibly popular.
One afternoon we had a group of Japanese visitors in our school. We have had several here before from many different countries and it is always a rewarding experience. On more than one occasion I have asked the foreign visitors why they are visiting our schools since theirs are supposed to be so good. Without exception, they have all said they would like to have their schools be more like ours. A strange comment since so often we hear how our schools should be more like theirs.
A parent went to the superintendent to complain about me. I expected it but was still somewhat surprised by this behavior. This person is a tough one to figure and so very unpredictable. This person has alienated most of the school community and I have received an number of complaints. Many other parents and teachers are afraid of this person. I hope to talk with the superintendent about this person sometime next week.
Another parent threatened us today by saying she would file child endangerment charges against us for not supervising her kindergartner during indoor recess. The truth is the child was supervised. This parent second-guesses us on everything and it is getting very tiresome. I don’t know why she continues to enroll her kids here if she is so unhappy with us? This is going to make an old man out of me!
At this point I began to wonder what would happen next. All the distractions from parents kept the school on edge and you could feel the tension in the building. For one reason or another some people get some sort of satisfaction out of the turmoil they create. Unfortunately it disrupts the learning environment for a lot of kids. The behavior is unforgivable in a lot of respects and makes me angry when I think about it. There must surely be a special place in hell for people like this.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
90s44 Beginning of the 99-00 School Year
For a while now I have been using journal entries from the 90s for my blog and not really telling many stories although the entries are stories in a way. Part of the problem has been that I have been very busy and sometimes too tired to write much new. The other problem is that many of stories I could tell are too recent and involve people that are still around. I have changed names and references to make it impossible to recognize people or incidents but still tried to give the flavor of the experience. I will visit them again sometime and maybe tell more.
I have eight more entries to finish out the 90s. I have been writing a piece a week for what will be five years when I finish those. Then, rather than writing about the 2000s, I plan to revisit earlier years and tell more stories about those times. I won’t be as driven to write one a week and so they may not show up as often. I think some my fiction may show up in the blog as well.
Now, to finish the 90s:
The 1999-2000 school started off with a lot of changes. We had new superintendent in the district. I wrote that I thought he would be good and that I hoped the media would give him a chance. At Longfellow, we replaced several staff as others moved on. I was pleased with the new hires and optimistic about the year.
During the summer the building windows were replaced and it was determined that there was a structural problem in the classrooms in the northwest part of the building. An I-beam needed to be replaced and that is no small job. We couldn’t use three rooms until the work was done so we were pretty crowded.
I hired a half time person at the third/fourth grade level but after a few days of school she took a full time position in another building. I was very unhappy with comments she made to parents about her leaving even before it was official. I will write later about parent dissatisfaction with the half sections. What it meant was during half of the day students were in three sections and larger class sizes. The other have of the day they were in four sections. The latter was used for reading and math. I saw it as making the best of the situation but parents didn’t like it.
I had a parent that year who was giving me a lot of trouble. He wanted his special needs daughter fully included in the classroom. He was adamant that her daughter was not around those “other kids,” those with special needs. The parent seemed to have great contempt special needs children except for his own child, of course.
The parents were full of contradictions and anger about their child. They didn’t trust us and second guessed our every move. We kept careful notes and documented every meeting and intervention. I’ll probably write about this situation again.
I have eight more entries to finish out the 90s. I have been writing a piece a week for what will be five years when I finish those. Then, rather than writing about the 2000s, I plan to revisit earlier years and tell more stories about those times. I won’t be as driven to write one a week and so they may not show up as often. I think some my fiction may show up in the blog as well.
Now, to finish the 90s:
The 1999-2000 school started off with a lot of changes. We had new superintendent in the district. I wrote that I thought he would be good and that I hoped the media would give him a chance. At Longfellow, we replaced several staff as others moved on. I was pleased with the new hires and optimistic about the year.
During the summer the building windows were replaced and it was determined that there was a structural problem in the classrooms in the northwest part of the building. An I-beam needed to be replaced and that is no small job. We couldn’t use three rooms until the work was done so we were pretty crowded.
I hired a half time person at the third/fourth grade level but after a few days of school she took a full time position in another building. I was very unhappy with comments she made to parents about her leaving even before it was official. I will write later about parent dissatisfaction with the half sections. What it meant was during half of the day students were in three sections and larger class sizes. The other have of the day they were in four sections. The latter was used for reading and math. I saw it as making the best of the situation but parents didn’t like it.
I had a parent that year who was giving me a lot of trouble. He wanted his special needs daughter fully included in the classroom. He was adamant that her daughter was not around those “other kids,” those with special needs. The parent seemed to have great contempt special needs children except for his own child, of course.
The parents were full of contradictions and anger about their child. They didn’t trust us and second guessed our every move. We kept careful notes and documented every meeting and intervention. I’ll probably write about this situation again.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
90s43 Wrapping it Up
Friday, May 7, 1999 – Today we got word that a note threatening the lives of Northwest Junior High students was found in that building. The note said the students would be killed on Monday. The building was under lock-down today and the police were there. It will be the same on Monday. Apparently several parents pulled their kids out of school today and will again on Monday. This is absolutely CRAZY!
Monday, May 17, 1999 – Rainy weather lately has made for squirrelly kids. The staff has been kind of testy too, because of all of the end of the year stuff. Tomorrow I am taking a vacation day to be an artist in residence at the elementary school in the L & M district. That should be fun! Then on Wednesday, I am taking a professional day to go to Des Moines to meet with Iowa’s first lady, Christie Vilsack, and to serve on her advisory council. That should be very interesting!
Tuesday, May 25, 1999 – Had a great time storytelling at L&M last week and meeting with Christie Vilsack was neat. A lot happened last week. On Friday I suspended a child for trashing my office and making threats. He is the child of a prominent community member so it could be a touchy situation. Also, late on Friday, another difficult parent called and said they were moving and their child would be attending a different school next year. They have been impossible to deal with much of the time and we will not be sorry to see them go, but the kid will be missed. Actually this move should be good for them.
Today, the student I suspended is returning to school and things could be tense. I am supposed to go on the 5/6 field trip but will wait to see how things are going before I leave. Another student brought a squirt gun to school today and was pointing it at people on the bus. There was also a problem outside with some of Ms. Hill’s students so we are off to a rough start.
Thursday, May 27, 1999 – …I turned in my portfolio today to Tim Grieves. We will have to meet regarding my evaluation before he leaves the district. I am glad it is almost over.
We will be getting about $100,000 from the state and $150,000 from the federal government for class size at k-3. That could help us immensely. We will have to do a new staffing plan as soon as we find out.
Wednesday, June 9, 1999 – School’s out! Some changes in staff for next year. We will be losing some associates and picking up some new ones…We have a student coming in who needs a four and one half hour associate that we will have to hire. We are also losing our strings teacher who is staying in the district but will not be at Longfellow next year. She is upset about not being here but there is not much that can be done about it. We are meeting at the CAO this morning about staffing for next year. Right now the plan is to have two ks, three and a half 1/2, three and a half 3/4, and three 5/6. I think that will change before school starts but we will just have to wait and see. Right now we have about 50 kindergartners so I think we will be having 3 sections there.
Thursday, June 14, 1999 – We are wrapping things up for this year. Julie is here one more day and then gone for the summer. I plan to do a lot of cleaning and throwing away and then planning for next year.
Monday, May 17, 1999 – Rainy weather lately has made for squirrelly kids. The staff has been kind of testy too, because of all of the end of the year stuff. Tomorrow I am taking a vacation day to be an artist in residence at the elementary school in the L & M district. That should be fun! Then on Wednesday, I am taking a professional day to go to Des Moines to meet with Iowa’s first lady, Christie Vilsack, and to serve on her advisory council. That should be very interesting!
Tuesday, May 25, 1999 – Had a great time storytelling at L&M last week and meeting with Christie Vilsack was neat. A lot happened last week. On Friday I suspended a child for trashing my office and making threats. He is the child of a prominent community member so it could be a touchy situation. Also, late on Friday, another difficult parent called and said they were moving and their child would be attending a different school next year. They have been impossible to deal with much of the time and we will not be sorry to see them go, but the kid will be missed. Actually this move should be good for them.
Today, the student I suspended is returning to school and things could be tense. I am supposed to go on the 5/6 field trip but will wait to see how things are going before I leave. Another student brought a squirt gun to school today and was pointing it at people on the bus. There was also a problem outside with some of Ms. Hill’s students so we are off to a rough start.
Thursday, May 27, 1999 – …I turned in my portfolio today to Tim Grieves. We will have to meet regarding my evaluation before he leaves the district. I am glad it is almost over.
We will be getting about $100,000 from the state and $150,000 from the federal government for class size at k-3. That could help us immensely. We will have to do a new staffing plan as soon as we find out.
Wednesday, June 9, 1999 – School’s out! Some changes in staff for next year. We will be losing some associates and picking up some new ones…We have a student coming in who needs a four and one half hour associate that we will have to hire. We are also losing our strings teacher who is staying in the district but will not be at Longfellow next year. She is upset about not being here but there is not much that can be done about it. We are meeting at the CAO this morning about staffing for next year. Right now the plan is to have two ks, three and a half 1/2, three and a half 3/4, and three 5/6. I think that will change before school starts but we will just have to wait and see. Right now we have about 50 kindergartners so I think we will be having 3 sections there.
Thursday, June 14, 1999 – We are wrapping things up for this year. Julie is here one more day and then gone for the summer. I plan to do a lot of cleaning and throwing away and then planning for next year.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
90s42 More From My Journal
During my time in education I have been directly involve in a lot of troubling things. But nothing quite as horrifying as what happened at Columbine High School in the spring of 1999. Every educator was shocked by this event and things have never been quite the same since. I am very sad to say that we are probably just as vulnerable to this kind of thing as we were then.
Monday, April 26, 1999 – Last week there was a terrible tragedy in Littleton, Colorado. Some students entered the building with guns and bombs and killed several people and wounded several others. It sent a shock through the nation and especially the schools. There have been some copycat incidents but nothing nearly as serious. I am hopeful that something will be done to protect the children from this happening but educators have pleaded for help for years and nothing has happened so we will just have to wait and see.
I have an ICN meeting after school today to talk about an evaluation for one of our students at a state institute. I don’t know what they will be able to tell us? This has been a very stressful situation for some time and we can’t really trust the parent. This is the person who didn’t like the associate that works with the child. I have spent many long hours with this person and am convinced that he will never be happy with us.
Wednesday, May 5, 1999 – I participated in the Penn Elementary Principal interviews yesterday. It was very interesting. A teacher from Longfellow was one of the candidates. She did a very good job! The job is being offered to another person. She teaches at Penn and has been assistant principal there. She will do a good job. I think the Longfellow teacher would have been good, too, but she needs some more experience. While I was there a student here used a stick as a weapon so I had to come back and deal with that. I suspended him for three days—two in school and an out-of-school day.
We had our last administrative council meeting of the year this morning. It included a luncheon for Barb and Tim. It was a nice event. This afternoon is the Silver Salute to recognize retirees and staff that have 25 years in the district.
I have a few teacher evaluation things to finish up and I’m done with that for the year. I haven’t met with Tim about my evaluation yet, but I think it will go well.
We had a meeting last night with the elementary principals about salary negotiations for next year. We are not very satisfied with our settlements in the last few years. There is not much money available this year so I don’t think it will be much better. Several of the principals are seriously considering returning to the classroom because the pay per-diem is not that much different and the stress is much less.
Monday, April 26, 1999 – Last week there was a terrible tragedy in Littleton, Colorado. Some students entered the building with guns and bombs and killed several people and wounded several others. It sent a shock through the nation and especially the schools. There have been some copycat incidents but nothing nearly as serious. I am hopeful that something will be done to protect the children from this happening but educators have pleaded for help for years and nothing has happened so we will just have to wait and see.
I have an ICN meeting after school today to talk about an evaluation for one of our students at a state institute. I don’t know what they will be able to tell us? This has been a very stressful situation for some time and we can’t really trust the parent. This is the person who didn’t like the associate that works with the child. I have spent many long hours with this person and am convinced that he will never be happy with us.
Wednesday, May 5, 1999 – I participated in the Penn Elementary Principal interviews yesterday. It was very interesting. A teacher from Longfellow was one of the candidates. She did a very good job! The job is being offered to another person. She teaches at Penn and has been assistant principal there. She will do a good job. I think the Longfellow teacher would have been good, too, but she needs some more experience. While I was there a student here used a stick as a weapon so I had to come back and deal with that. I suspended him for three days—two in school and an out-of-school day.
We had our last administrative council meeting of the year this morning. It included a luncheon for Barb and Tim. It was a nice event. This afternoon is the Silver Salute to recognize retirees and staff that have 25 years in the district.
I have a few teacher evaluation things to finish up and I’m done with that for the year. I haven’t met with Tim about my evaluation yet, but I think it will go well.
We had a meeting last night with the elementary principals about salary negotiations for next year. We are not very satisfied with our settlements in the last few years. There is not much money available this year so I don’t think it will be much better. Several of the principals are seriously considering returning to the classroom because the pay per-diem is not that much different and the stress is much less.
Sunday, January 03, 2010
90s41 End of the Year
From about April 1st on things get hectic in an elementary school! Teachers are working frantically to cover material, complete end of year reports, do all of the required “end of the year” assessments and everything else. At the same time the district is planning for the coming year. That includes enrollment projections and staffing for the next school year. Some staff are notified that they will be moving to another position or building. It all makes for a very tense time of the year!
Each year there is a meeting at the central office when you get the official enrollment project and staffing for next year. I always dreaded that meeting! I dreaded even more having to go back to my building and share the information with the staff. The very worst part was having to tell someone they wouldn’t be in our building next year.
Monday, April 5, 1999 – Wow! I have been very busy and not had much time to write. We are doing staffing for next year and the budget. Enrollment will be down so we will probably lose a teacher. It looks like we’ll be having two kindergartens, three 1/2, four 3/4, and three 5/6. I don’t know how the parents will react to that. Time will tell. Negotiations are still going on so when that is resolved it may change things.
We are interviewing for our interpreter/associate position. We have done three and will probably do three more.
Tuesday, April 6, 1999 – We probably made a big mistake today, but I really didn’t know any way out of it. We have a special needs student who has a full-time associate during the year. We were discussing whether the child would need extended year. The team unanimously felt that it would benefit the child. Thinking the parents would want summer school we were trying to decide how we could pay for it if the parents didn’t want to pay themselves. The parents were 25 minutes late to the meeting. We agreed the child could benefit from extended year, identified the skills that would be maintained and then the parents said they didn’t want summer school. Our AEA consultant then came up with the option of a tutor for 45 min. a day, four days a week, for six weeks. That will definitely be unpopular at the central office, but had painted ourselves into a corner and weren’t able to be quick-thinking enough to get out of it. The problem is it sets an expensive precedent. It will cost the district about $360.
Monday, April 19, 1999 – I sent my self-evaluation over to Tim last week but forgot to include this with it. I’ll send it over today. We are struggling to get everything done before the end of the year. I’m trying to get all of the teacher evaluation stuff done but it is really time consuming. The Seminar in School Leadership class met this morning and had an interesting session. It was primarily about accommodations for special needs kids. We used two or three of Autry’s pieces from Life and Work. We only have one more session. That will be on May 3rd.
Each year there is a meeting at the central office when you get the official enrollment project and staffing for next year. I always dreaded that meeting! I dreaded even more having to go back to my building and share the information with the staff. The very worst part was having to tell someone they wouldn’t be in our building next year.
Monday, April 5, 1999 – Wow! I have been very busy and not had much time to write. We are doing staffing for next year and the budget. Enrollment will be down so we will probably lose a teacher. It looks like we’ll be having two kindergartens, three 1/2, four 3/4, and three 5/6. I don’t know how the parents will react to that. Time will tell. Negotiations are still going on so when that is resolved it may change things.
We are interviewing for our interpreter/associate position. We have done three and will probably do three more.
Tuesday, April 6, 1999 – We probably made a big mistake today, but I really didn’t know any way out of it. We have a special needs student who has a full-time associate during the year. We were discussing whether the child would need extended year. The team unanimously felt that it would benefit the child. Thinking the parents would want summer school we were trying to decide how we could pay for it if the parents didn’t want to pay themselves. The parents were 25 minutes late to the meeting. We agreed the child could benefit from extended year, identified the skills that would be maintained and then the parents said they didn’t want summer school. Our AEA consultant then came up with the option of a tutor for 45 min. a day, four days a week, for six weeks. That will definitely be unpopular at the central office, but had painted ourselves into a corner and weren’t able to be quick-thinking enough to get out of it. The problem is it sets an expensive precedent. It will cost the district about $360.
Monday, April 19, 1999 – I sent my self-evaluation over to Tim last week but forgot to include this with it. I’ll send it over today. We are struggling to get everything done before the end of the year. I’m trying to get all of the teacher evaluation stuff done but it is really time consuming. The Seminar in School Leadership class met this morning and had an interesting session. It was primarily about accommodations for special needs kids. We used two or three of Autry’s pieces from Life and Work. We only have one more session. That will be on May 3rd.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
90s40 Challenges
We had a district strategic plan in the 90s and it included a strategy to deal with budget shortages that we were facing at the time. It was referred to as “Strategy 2” and was the justification for cuts in several areas. It affected building staffing and budgets and created a lot of anxiety across the district. This journal entry reflects that as well as some other changes. The interesting thing is that the district is facing these same challenges today. We have been in the budget cutting mode the last two years and it looks like it will continue for a while.
Friday, March 26, 1999 – We are working on our staffing plan now. It looks like we will have two k, three 1/2, four 3/4, and three 5/6. Our projected enrollment is 258. I think it will be closer to 270, but we will just have to wait and see. We are also working on the building budget for next year. It will be about $4000. less than this year so we will have to use our carryover to make up the difference.
Administrators in Iowa City undergo a comprehensive evaluation. I was evaluated during the 1998-1999 school year. The process included parent, staff and student surveys. At the same time I was being evaluated I was evaluating teachers. It was all very time consuming and I was doing that on top of all of my other duties as a principal.
I am struggling to get my portfolio in some kind of acceptable format and just can’t seem to find time to work on it. I have received the external survey information from the staff and am waiting on it from the parents. The staff input is very positive. I expect some negative stuff from the parents. With all the external stuff in I can work on my self-evaluation. Hopefully, I can get this all done soon. I am also trying to finish up teacher evaluation for the year.
Being a superintendent has never been a job I was interested in. I was offered the position at Mediapolis the year I left but I never really considered it. It is a tough job and is too far removed from the kids for me. Superintendents have to make hard decisions and they eventually alienate a lot of people. It is just the nature of the job. This year we lost both the superintendent and the assistant superintendent the same year. I wasn’t surprised to see them leave and was curious about who we would find to take their place.
For our school improvement plan I will be asking each unit to come up with an objective that relates to our achievement goal and uses the data from our assessments as documentation towards the goal.
We will be replacing both Tim Grieves and Barb Grohe this year. That will be tough and there could be a lot of uncertainty for a while. Hopefully, we’ll get through it without too much trouble. Their support and expertise will be missed.
Friday, March 26, 1999 – We are working on our staffing plan now. It looks like we will have two k, three 1/2, four 3/4, and three 5/6. Our projected enrollment is 258. I think it will be closer to 270, but we will just have to wait and see. We are also working on the building budget for next year. It will be about $4000. less than this year so we will have to use our carryover to make up the difference.
Administrators in Iowa City undergo a comprehensive evaluation. I was evaluated during the 1998-1999 school year. The process included parent, staff and student surveys. At the same time I was being evaluated I was evaluating teachers. It was all very time consuming and I was doing that on top of all of my other duties as a principal.
I am struggling to get my portfolio in some kind of acceptable format and just can’t seem to find time to work on it. I have received the external survey information from the staff and am waiting on it from the parents. The staff input is very positive. I expect some negative stuff from the parents. With all the external stuff in I can work on my self-evaluation. Hopefully, I can get this all done soon. I am also trying to finish up teacher evaluation for the year.
Being a superintendent has never been a job I was interested in. I was offered the position at Mediapolis the year I left but I never really considered it. It is a tough job and is too far removed from the kids for me. Superintendents have to make hard decisions and they eventually alienate a lot of people. It is just the nature of the job. This year we lost both the superintendent and the assistant superintendent the same year. I wasn’t surprised to see them leave and was curious about who we would find to take their place.
For our school improvement plan I will be asking each unit to come up with an objective that relates to our achievement goal and uses the data from our assessments as documentation towards the goal.
We will be replacing both Tim Grieves and Barb Grohe this year. That will be tough and there could be a lot of uncertainty for a while. Hopefully, we’ll get through it without too much trouble. Their support and expertise will be missed.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
90s29 Formal Dinner
Tuesday, February 16, 1999 – Last Thursday we had a very successful formal lunch for the students at Longfellow. We got a lot of favorable press for the school and the district and we can all use that right now…
We started several traditions when I was at Longfellow. Several continue but I am not sure about this one. Every year around Valentines Day we had a formal lunch for all of the students. Everyone was expected to come in his or her Sunday best. Even the staff dressed for the event. Our intent in doing it was to reward the kids and give them some instruction in appropriate behavior in a more formal setting. I always wore a tuxedo that day.
We decorated the lunchroom and used table clothes. We also put flowers on the tables and unlit candles. Soft music played in the background. As the students ate I passed out chocolate kisses to each one.
This became a very popular event with the students and families. Many parents came and took pictures of their children. Over time, more and more parents came and it begin to be congested. Eventually, we had to ask parents not to attend.
The newspaper covered the event several times and Channel 2 did a segment on it once. The latter was interesting because the reporter was a jerk and expected a free lunch out of it. The story turned out pretty well but the reporter thought he was pretty special. Seems to be a common thing with Iowa TV station personalities.
I am not thrilled that schools have been forced to take on many parenting duties but I always liked this event because we all could see the kids in a different light. I was amazed at how much quieter they were during lunch. I think it impacted their behavior all day long. There were very few behavior incidents on those days.
Friday, February 19, 1999 – There was a bomb threat for all Johnson County schools this morning. It was called in to the police department. Mr. Murray and I searched Longfellow while school was in session and found nothing unusual. It took us about an hour and a half to do the search. We also searched the outside around the building and the trash containers. Every building in Iowa City handled it this way. About a week ago there was a similar threat in another county and they missed a least a day of school. Even though I knew it was very unlikely that there was a bomb in any school and even more unlikely that there was one at Longfellow it was still nerve-racking searching and thinking about it. We had about a dozen parents take their kids out of school when they heard about it on the news and we have had dozens of calls about it. All in all a wild day!
We are still working with a parent regarding the interpreter for a child. Yesterday the parent was very angry with me but had calmed down a great deal today when I talked to her. We are meeting with the parent again next Wednesday. It is likely that this will go to mediation or we will have a hearing.
We started several traditions when I was at Longfellow. Several continue but I am not sure about this one. Every year around Valentines Day we had a formal lunch for all of the students. Everyone was expected to come in his or her Sunday best. Even the staff dressed for the event. Our intent in doing it was to reward the kids and give them some instruction in appropriate behavior in a more formal setting. I always wore a tuxedo that day.
We decorated the lunchroom and used table clothes. We also put flowers on the tables and unlit candles. Soft music played in the background. As the students ate I passed out chocolate kisses to each one.
This became a very popular event with the students and families. Many parents came and took pictures of their children. Over time, more and more parents came and it begin to be congested. Eventually, we had to ask parents not to attend.
The newspaper covered the event several times and Channel 2 did a segment on it once. The latter was interesting because the reporter was a jerk and expected a free lunch out of it. The story turned out pretty well but the reporter thought he was pretty special. Seems to be a common thing with Iowa TV station personalities.
I am not thrilled that schools have been forced to take on many parenting duties but I always liked this event because we all could see the kids in a different light. I was amazed at how much quieter they were during lunch. I think it impacted their behavior all day long. There were very few behavior incidents on those days.
Friday, February 19, 1999 – There was a bomb threat for all Johnson County schools this morning. It was called in to the police department. Mr. Murray and I searched Longfellow while school was in session and found nothing unusual. It took us about an hour and a half to do the search. We also searched the outside around the building and the trash containers. Every building in Iowa City handled it this way. About a week ago there was a similar threat in another county and they missed a least a day of school. Even though I knew it was very unlikely that there was a bomb in any school and even more unlikely that there was one at Longfellow it was still nerve-racking searching and thinking about it. We had about a dozen parents take their kids out of school when they heard about it on the news and we have had dozens of calls about it. All in all a wild day!
We are still working with a parent regarding the interpreter for a child. Yesterday the parent was very angry with me but had calmed down a great deal today when I talked to her. We are meeting with the parent again next Wednesday. It is likely that this will go to mediation or we will have a hearing.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
90s38 Character
My journal is full of incidents like the one described below. I was always amazed and surprised by the things that were happening and the response of those involved. I never really knew for sure what to expect. I grew up in a period where parents were more likely to support the school on an issue than their own child. That is definitely not the case now. In fact, the opposite seems to be true.
November 13, 1998 - I had parents in yesterday morning concerned that I had told their kids that if they tried to beat someone up after school I would call the police and if they engaged in that kind of behavior we didn't want them at Longfellow. I told the parents that I had said that because it is true. I don't know what they were expecting? I said that we just couldn't tolerate that kind of thing. Their children are very good at diverting the attention from the real issue and the parents were doing the same thing. I told them that and they didn't like it much. The truth is the boys were overheard, by an adult, saying that they were going to get another student after school. They admitted to it but still tried to blame the other student. It's disturbing that very few will take responsibility for their actions. It's a real problem in school and the world in general.
This has been a disturbing trend for a long time now. People refuse to take responsibility for their own behavior. They always want to blame others or circumstance. It appears that if they can blame someone or something else they don’t have to do anything about it themselves.
In education we have seen it in kids and their parents. It is always someone else’s fault. I am not sure what the parents in the incident above expected me to do but I have always insisted that school is a safe environment for all and I would take whatever steps necessary to make sure that it was.
Teaching responsibility used to be the parent’s job but so many of them are not responsible themselves that it isn’t getting done. Race, ethnicity or social economic status doesn’t have anything to do with it. It seems to know no boundaries. Kids from some of the best families are the worst.
I really don’t think the school should have to teach everything to a child but that is the prevailing thought. Whether it’s character or values, respect for others, responsibility and so on, the general expectation is that if the kids don’t have it the schools must not be doing their job. On top of teaching all the subject areas we took on these additional responsibilities.
We started a program called Success4 in our building in 1998. It was part of a larger program called the Iowa Behavior Initiative (IBI). The focus was on teaching responsibility and expected behavior in different places at school including the playground. In my November 9th journal entry I wrote: At this point last year we had 140 office time outs. We have had 24 so far this year. At this point last year we had 24 bus reports. We have had 8 so far this year. Our IBI work and our school improvement goal seem to be working.
November 13, 1998 - I had parents in yesterday morning concerned that I had told their kids that if they tried to beat someone up after school I would call the police and if they engaged in that kind of behavior we didn't want them at Longfellow. I told the parents that I had said that because it is true. I don't know what they were expecting? I said that we just couldn't tolerate that kind of thing. Their children are very good at diverting the attention from the real issue and the parents were doing the same thing. I told them that and they didn't like it much. The truth is the boys were overheard, by an adult, saying that they were going to get another student after school. They admitted to it but still tried to blame the other student. It's disturbing that very few will take responsibility for their actions. It's a real problem in school and the world in general.
This has been a disturbing trend for a long time now. People refuse to take responsibility for their own behavior. They always want to blame others or circumstance. It appears that if they can blame someone or something else they don’t have to do anything about it themselves.
In education we have seen it in kids and their parents. It is always someone else’s fault. I am not sure what the parents in the incident above expected me to do but I have always insisted that school is a safe environment for all and I would take whatever steps necessary to make sure that it was.
Teaching responsibility used to be the parent’s job but so many of them are not responsible themselves that it isn’t getting done. Race, ethnicity or social economic status doesn’t have anything to do with it. It seems to know no boundaries. Kids from some of the best families are the worst.
I really don’t think the school should have to teach everything to a child but that is the prevailing thought. Whether it’s character or values, respect for others, responsibility and so on, the general expectation is that if the kids don’t have it the schools must not be doing their job. On top of teaching all the subject areas we took on these additional responsibilities.
We started a program called Success4 in our building in 1998. It was part of a larger program called the Iowa Behavior Initiative (IBI). The focus was on teaching responsibility and expected behavior in different places at school including the playground. In my November 9th journal entry I wrote: At this point last year we had 140 office time outs. We have had 24 so far this year. At this point last year we had 24 bus reports. We have had 8 so far this year. Our IBI work and our school improvement goal seem to be working.
Sunday, December 06, 2009
90s37 Responsibility
I have heard critics says things like all elementary principals have to do is stand in the hall and pat children on the head as they pass by. Some have the notion that we have nothing to do or if we do its not important.
The truth is elementary principals are overwhelmed with things to do and when they think they may have a chance to catch up ten new things pop up. Responsibilities include the entire grounds and the structure. I usually walked the building inside and out daily looking for anything that might be a problem. I walked the parameter of the grounds weekly.
Teacher observations, student behavior, parent issues, personnel issues and paperwork fill up the rest of the day.
October 9, 1998 - I have started my observations of teachers. I am observing them as they administer the Checkpoint Assessment and the DRA with hopes that I will better understand them and even do some of them myself. I am also working on my goal of helping all of us better understand the relationship between the strategies, skills, lesson objectives and benchmarks and how it all fits together. I have met with two of the teams and will meet with the other soon. I am also reinforcing this by having the teacher make the connection as part of the evaluation process.
Things continue to go well at Longfellow. We have lost another student and will pick up two on Monday so maybe the trend will change now. I hope so! I still have parent concerns about class size and did get some ratio to hire two hours more of associate time.
The Strategy 2 committee has made some tentative recommendations that include considering having some elementary administrators serve more than one building and cutting back on the days administrators work. Neither sounds good to me but I doubt if they are interested in my opinion.
October 19, 1998 - Tomorrow is a parent/teacher conference day. All continues to go well at Longfellow this year. We really deserved a good year after last year and I am very grateful that we are having one. I had two students last week that stabbed each other with pencils after what started as a friendly sword fight? I suspended both of them for the rest of the day and then gave each a day of in-school suspension. We have a strict no tolerance policy about that sort of thing and sometimes it seems a little harsh to some. We had ITBS last week and have make-ups this week.
October 20, 1998 - Today is a parent/teacher conference day. It has been quiet so far. The PTA had a potato/chili supper last night and a book fair today. There were about 150 people there last night and it was a successful event. I am up for evaluation this year and so this journal will be part of it. We have to do a self-evaluation, seek input from the school community and also do a portfolio. I can see that it will be very time consuming. I hope it yields valuable information.
The truth is elementary principals are overwhelmed with things to do and when they think they may have a chance to catch up ten new things pop up. Responsibilities include the entire grounds and the structure. I usually walked the building inside and out daily looking for anything that might be a problem. I walked the parameter of the grounds weekly.
Teacher observations, student behavior, parent issues, personnel issues and paperwork fill up the rest of the day.
October 9, 1998 - I have started my observations of teachers. I am observing them as they administer the Checkpoint Assessment and the DRA with hopes that I will better understand them and even do some of them myself. I am also working on my goal of helping all of us better understand the relationship between the strategies, skills, lesson objectives and benchmarks and how it all fits together. I have met with two of the teams and will meet with the other soon. I am also reinforcing this by having the teacher make the connection as part of the evaluation process.
Things continue to go well at Longfellow. We have lost another student and will pick up two on Monday so maybe the trend will change now. I hope so! I still have parent concerns about class size and did get some ratio to hire two hours more of associate time.
The Strategy 2 committee has made some tentative recommendations that include considering having some elementary administrators serve more than one building and cutting back on the days administrators work. Neither sounds good to me but I doubt if they are interested in my opinion.
October 19, 1998 - Tomorrow is a parent/teacher conference day. All continues to go well at Longfellow this year. We really deserved a good year after last year and I am very grateful that we are having one. I had two students last week that stabbed each other with pencils after what started as a friendly sword fight? I suspended both of them for the rest of the day and then gave each a day of in-school suspension. We have a strict no tolerance policy about that sort of thing and sometimes it seems a little harsh to some. We had ITBS last week and have make-ups this week.
October 20, 1998 - Today is a parent/teacher conference day. It has been quiet so far. The PTA had a potato/chili supper last night and a book fair today. There were about 150 people there last night and it was a successful event. I am up for evaluation this year and so this journal will be part of it. We have to do a self-evaluation, seek input from the school community and also do a portfolio. I can see that it will be very time consuming. I hope it yields valuable information.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
90s36 More Problems
I have always thought that the general public would be surprised and alarmed about all of the problems we face daily in our elementary schools. Occasionally, they do get a brief glimpse. Some seek to get away from it while others just choose to ignore it. Times when people need to pitch in and be part of the solution are often times when they leave or just criticize.
September 28, 1998 - We had the first session of our Seminar in School Leadership this morning. About fifteen people showed up and I got two messages from people who forgot it but will come next time. We are meeting at the Holiday Inn for breakfast 15 times and talking about Autry's book Love and Profit and other sources that might be of interest to the group. It should be fun!
Last week I got a report that a female 3rd grader was behaving inappropriately on the playground. She has been threatening others and exposing herself. This happened sometime last year and earlier this year and I thought we had it taken care of. One parent was so upset that she took her child out of Longfellow and is sending her to Regina. I am very sorry to see them go but I know this parent has been on the verge of this for sometime and this incident was the straw that broke the camel's back. Now I hear from someone at the central office that the parent doesn't feel I did all I could. I did interview everyone last week in Julie or Donna's presence. I am trying to reach another parent who is concerned but haven't yet made the connection. In addition, another parent told us today she wanted to take her kids out of Longfellow because one of them is being picked on. She has three kids here. Two of them are in SCI. Their home school is Wood. I hope to meet with this parent and the teachers after school and relieve some of her concerns. We had a special education student who had a small pocketknife on the bus this morning. He showed it to the driver and did not use it in a threatening way. I am going to give him in-school suspension for a day, but am having trouble getting hold of the parents.
* * *
Wow! When it rains it pours!!! I knew things were going too well.
I ended up suspending the boy who brought the knife to school to one day of in school suspension. The mother of the three children who was thinking of sending them to Wood decided to only send the regular ed. one there so we will be keeping the two that are in SCI.
The sudden drop in student numbers has me again concerned. Some of them are attributed to class size and some to families moving. We lost three on Friday. Two of those moved and one is going to Regina. We are losing another one who is going to Puerto Rico. Two are going to another school because of class size. One boy went to Wood because that is his home school and he thinks he has more friends there. We have three more that say they are moving and tomorrow is their last day. Whew!
September 28, 1998 - We had the first session of our Seminar in School Leadership this morning. About fifteen people showed up and I got two messages from people who forgot it but will come next time. We are meeting at the Holiday Inn for breakfast 15 times and talking about Autry's book Love and Profit and other sources that might be of interest to the group. It should be fun!
Last week I got a report that a female 3rd grader was behaving inappropriately on the playground. She has been threatening others and exposing herself. This happened sometime last year and earlier this year and I thought we had it taken care of. One parent was so upset that she took her child out of Longfellow and is sending her to Regina. I am very sorry to see them go but I know this parent has been on the verge of this for sometime and this incident was the straw that broke the camel's back. Now I hear from someone at the central office that the parent doesn't feel I did all I could. I did interview everyone last week in Julie or Donna's presence. I am trying to reach another parent who is concerned but haven't yet made the connection. In addition, another parent told us today she wanted to take her kids out of Longfellow because one of them is being picked on. She has three kids here. Two of them are in SCI. Their home school is Wood. I hope to meet with this parent and the teachers after school and relieve some of her concerns. We had a special education student who had a small pocketknife on the bus this morning. He showed it to the driver and did not use it in a threatening way. I am going to give him in-school suspension for a day, but am having trouble getting hold of the parents.
* * *
Wow! When it rains it pours!!! I knew things were going too well.
I ended up suspending the boy who brought the knife to school to one day of in school suspension. The mother of the three children who was thinking of sending them to Wood decided to only send the regular ed. one there so we will be keeping the two that are in SCI.
The sudden drop in student numbers has me again concerned. Some of them are attributed to class size and some to families moving. We lost three on Friday. Two of those moved and one is going to Regina. We are losing another one who is going to Puerto Rico. Two are going to another school because of class size. One boy went to Wood because that is his home school and he thinks he has more friends there. We have three more that say they are moving and tomorrow is their last day. Whew!
Sunday, November 22, 2009
90s35 Picnics and Problems
The first entry below contains my first thoughts on adding a half-time teacher at the 3/4th grade level. We didn’t have the staffing ratio to have a full time person and this seemed to be the best option. It was well received at first but eventually became known to the school board as the “Longfellow problem.” More on that another time.
September 8, 1998 - Things are really going well so far here at Longfellow. We do have some large class sizes at 3/4th. We have 3.5 teachers there and would like it to be four but it is not likely. Our ESL numbers are up to 22 so we may be making some changes there.
We are all in shock because of something that happened at another school in the district. Apparently a volunteer in the building was taking inappropriate photographs of students...It is a very scary thing for anyone who works with children.
I started the Longfellow picnic as a way of celebrating and bringing the neigborhood and the school together. It is an annual event that continues and I am proud to have been part of it.
September 14, 1998 - Things are still going quite well at Longfellow. Last Wednesday, September 9, we celebrated our 80th year to the day. We had a picnic outside with music from the Drollingers and a stilt walker. We had activities for the kids and it was a great time. A lot of parents came and enjoyed the day, too. Longfellow Site Council met for our first meeting of the year today. It was a very productive session with everyone taking some responsibility for the school improvement plan goals…
September 21, 1998 - Things are still going well at Longfellow! We had a nice staff lunch last Thursday and I hired a local banjo player to play for it. I think the staff enjoyed it.
We had a child bitten by a puppy last week. The owner of the puppy refused to take any responsibility for it and bullied the boy and his father into saying that it happened with their own dog two weeks earlier. It was clear to us and the school nurse that it was a fresh wound. It bled profusely. There were also several witnesses who saw the dog bite him. The animal control people just didn't want to follow through on this one. Too bad that you can bend the rules if you are a big enough bully!
We were able to hire our .5 3/4th grade teacher as half ESL teacher here. That is great! We also picked up a .25 from another ESL teacher who has been in another building. He is furious about being here and has been very rude and uncooperative. It has been down right ugly! It will probably get worse before it gets better. I hear that he is a good teacher. We'll have to wait and see.
I have been working on my goals for the year and hope to have them done soon. The superintendent wants them by the end of the month. I also have to start revising my portfolio. I taught 6th grade last week while the 5th graders were at McBride. I did 3 sessions over that many days. There were 42 kids in the group so it was a big class! It was fun and it went well. We worked on point of view and visual literacy.
September 8, 1998 - Things are really going well so far here at Longfellow. We do have some large class sizes at 3/4th. We have 3.5 teachers there and would like it to be four but it is not likely. Our ESL numbers are up to 22 so we may be making some changes there.
We are all in shock because of something that happened at another school in the district. Apparently a volunteer in the building was taking inappropriate photographs of students...It is a very scary thing for anyone who works with children.
I started the Longfellow picnic as a way of celebrating and bringing the neigborhood and the school together. It is an annual event that continues and I am proud to have been part of it.
September 14, 1998 - Things are still going quite well at Longfellow. Last Wednesday, September 9, we celebrated our 80th year to the day. We had a picnic outside with music from the Drollingers and a stilt walker. We had activities for the kids and it was a great time. A lot of parents came and enjoyed the day, too. Longfellow Site Council met for our first meeting of the year today. It was a very productive session with everyone taking some responsibility for the school improvement plan goals…
September 21, 1998 - Things are still going well at Longfellow! We had a nice staff lunch last Thursday and I hired a local banjo player to play for it. I think the staff enjoyed it.
We had a child bitten by a puppy last week. The owner of the puppy refused to take any responsibility for it and bullied the boy and his father into saying that it happened with their own dog two weeks earlier. It was clear to us and the school nurse that it was a fresh wound. It bled profusely. There were also several witnesses who saw the dog bite him. The animal control people just didn't want to follow through on this one. Too bad that you can bend the rules if you are a big enough bully!
We were able to hire our .5 3/4th grade teacher as half ESL teacher here. That is great! We also picked up a .25 from another ESL teacher who has been in another building. He is furious about being here and has been very rude and uncooperative. It has been down right ugly! It will probably get worse before it gets better. I hear that he is a good teacher. We'll have to wait and see.
I have been working on my goals for the year and hope to have them done soon. The superintendent wants them by the end of the month. I also have to start revising my portfolio. I taught 6th grade last week while the 5th graders were at McBride. I did 3 sessions over that many days. There were 42 kids in the group so it was a big class! It was fun and it went well. We worked on point of view and visual literacy.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
90s34 A New Year
You never know for sure what a new school year will bring. The 1997-98 school year had been one crisis after another. Beginning this school year I was hoping for a calmer time.
August 10, 1998 - I have been back for a while. Julie, my secretary, started back today. Things are really picking up. Several staff members have been in and we are all getting excited about the school year. Tomorrow is new student enrollment day. We are hopeful that we will get a number of new students because we are down about 40 from last spring. We have a staffing meeting Wednesday and the CAO and Administrative Council on Thursday morning. We have a staff retreat on Monday and everybody comes back to start the year on Wednesday of next week. We are starting off the year with IBI and had posters printed for the school. I’m anxious to see how that all works out. This is going to be the best year ever!!!
The IBI mentioned in the above entry is the Iowa Behavior Initiative. It really made a big positive difference in student behavior in our building that year. It is all about teaching expected behavior over and over whenever the opportunity arises. In many places it is now called PBS (Positive Behavior Supports).
August 18, 1998 - School starts on Monday and the pace has really picked up. We are getting a few new students but still nothing close to what we lost. Had a staff retreat yesterday that went very well. We worked on our school improvement plan and the student behavior expectations for the coming year. It was a very positive start for us. Everyone seems to be excited about the year. Tomorrow is the official first day for teachers. We start with breakfast on the West High lawn.
August 24, 1998 - Wow! What a day! School is underway! It was very busy around here today but all in all the day went well. We are still short an associate and a half but hope to find someone for those positions soon. A guidance counselor in the district who was a close friend of some of our teachers died today. It was very sad. I sent a teacher home as soon as the kids were gone. She was a close friend of the counselor. We seem to have some very good kids this year. We have about 20 in ESL. Lunchroom and noon recess went Ok.
August 26, 1998 - Some issues are heating up! Class size in the p.m. at 3/4 is a concern. In the morning they are in four sections so class size is about 20. In the afternoon they are in 3 sections and class size is about 28 plus the SCI kids that are included part of the time. The parents have a petition and some are calling me. One has even requested that their child be moved to another section. The 5/6 teachers are at odds with me over another issue. Over the summer we agreed to send the 5th graders to McBride Camp for a week. Now the teachers want to have a lottery and let 6th graders fill the empty slots. They can take 60 and we only have 43 fifth graders. I have said we are only sending the fifth graders and that has them upset. Met with Jerry and Brad about some misunderstandings between the Physical Plant and us. I think we got it worked out and things should improve.
The class size issues mentioned above became a nightmare! I’ll tell more about that later. I stuck to my guns with the 5th grade McBride issues and it worked out fine.
August 10, 1998 - I have been back for a while. Julie, my secretary, started back today. Things are really picking up. Several staff members have been in and we are all getting excited about the school year. Tomorrow is new student enrollment day. We are hopeful that we will get a number of new students because we are down about 40 from last spring. We have a staffing meeting Wednesday and the CAO and Administrative Council on Thursday morning. We have a staff retreat on Monday and everybody comes back to start the year on Wednesday of next week. We are starting off the year with IBI and had posters printed for the school. I’m anxious to see how that all works out. This is going to be the best year ever!!!
The IBI mentioned in the above entry is the Iowa Behavior Initiative. It really made a big positive difference in student behavior in our building that year. It is all about teaching expected behavior over and over whenever the opportunity arises. In many places it is now called PBS (Positive Behavior Supports).
August 18, 1998 - School starts on Monday and the pace has really picked up. We are getting a few new students but still nothing close to what we lost. Had a staff retreat yesterday that went very well. We worked on our school improvement plan and the student behavior expectations for the coming year. It was a very positive start for us. Everyone seems to be excited about the year. Tomorrow is the official first day for teachers. We start with breakfast on the West High lawn.
August 24, 1998 - Wow! What a day! School is underway! It was very busy around here today but all in all the day went well. We are still short an associate and a half but hope to find someone for those positions soon. A guidance counselor in the district who was a close friend of some of our teachers died today. It was very sad. I sent a teacher home as soon as the kids were gone. She was a close friend of the counselor. We seem to have some very good kids this year. We have about 20 in ESL. Lunchroom and noon recess went Ok.
August 26, 1998 - Some issues are heating up! Class size in the p.m. at 3/4 is a concern. In the morning they are in four sections so class size is about 20. In the afternoon they are in 3 sections and class size is about 28 plus the SCI kids that are included part of the time. The parents have a petition and some are calling me. One has even requested that their child be moved to another section. The 5/6 teachers are at odds with me over another issue. Over the summer we agreed to send the 5th graders to McBride Camp for a week. Now the teachers want to have a lottery and let 6th graders fill the empty slots. They can take 60 and we only have 43 fifth graders. I have said we are only sending the fifth graders and that has them upset. Met with Jerry and Brad about some misunderstandings between the Physical Plant and us. I think we got it worked out and things should improve.
The class size issues mentioned above became a nightmare! I’ll tell more about that later. I stuck to my guns with the 5th grade McBride issues and it worked out fine.
Sunday, November 08, 2009
90s33 End of the School Year
The last few journal entries describe some on-going problems that we had that year. In the March 5th entry I refer to some bullying behavior that was going on among some of the 6th grade girls. I had dealt with the girls almost all year long and it seemed that no matter how much I chastised them the bullying continued. It was very frustrating. Girls can sometimes be more difficult to handle than boys in many ways.
The other child referred to was very troubled and I often wonder what has happened to the child since then. They moved out of the district that summer. The child would be about 16 years old now.
The rest of the entries describe a few of the more frustrating things that happened that year. As with all of my published entries, I have modified enough to make it impossible to identify the people involved and yet still illustrate the types of things that occurred.
March 5, 1998
Today is a parent/teacher conference day. All have gone pretty well. We met with a parent whose daughter is being bothered by some other 6th graders. Hopefully we are making progress in getting this kind of thing stopped. It is very frustrating. We had a kindergartner kick, bite, hit, and spit on adult staff yesterday while I was out of the building. She has done this before, but not for a while. We are going to have to meet and make sure that the mother is taking some steps to stop this behavior.
April 1, 1998
True to form the year continues to be full of struggles and surprises. A student went bonkers yesterday. I had to carry him to the office. He threatened to get his neighbors shotgun and shoot me in the head. Teacher salary negotiations are stalled and the Strategy 2 stuff is still a hot issue. We are already planning for another round of cuts for next year. It won't get any better until the legislature changes some things. I am not optimistic that will happen soon.
April 14, 1998
A parent has pulled his child out of Longfellow and placed the child in the BD classroom at Lemme. It is a relief not to have to deal with them and this is probably the best for the kid. It is a troubled family! I also suspended the child for two school days because of the incident mentioned in the April 1 notes. Now that that is taken care of another parent has flared up and wants to control who their child associates with. We are meeting with her on Thursday.
June 6, 1998
Whew! That school year is over! I hope I never have one like it again! This spring has been hectic--actually the whole year was hectic--and I haven't had much time to journal about it. I am looking forward to a nice break from the stress this summer. Near the end of the year we had another stabbing incident. A student used a pencil. I suspended her and her father is quite upset that this will be on her permanent record. He filed a grievance against me but I held my ground and the issue went to the superintendent. As far as I know she upheld my position.
The other child referred to was very troubled and I often wonder what has happened to the child since then. They moved out of the district that summer. The child would be about 16 years old now.
The rest of the entries describe a few of the more frustrating things that happened that year. As with all of my published entries, I have modified enough to make it impossible to identify the people involved and yet still illustrate the types of things that occurred.
March 5, 1998
Today is a parent/teacher conference day. All have gone pretty well. We met with a parent whose daughter is being bothered by some other 6th graders. Hopefully we are making progress in getting this kind of thing stopped. It is very frustrating. We had a kindergartner kick, bite, hit, and spit on adult staff yesterday while I was out of the building. She has done this before, but not for a while. We are going to have to meet and make sure that the mother is taking some steps to stop this behavior.
April 1, 1998
True to form the year continues to be full of struggles and surprises. A student went bonkers yesterday. I had to carry him to the office. He threatened to get his neighbors shotgun and shoot me in the head. Teacher salary negotiations are stalled and the Strategy 2 stuff is still a hot issue. We are already planning for another round of cuts for next year. It won't get any better until the legislature changes some things. I am not optimistic that will happen soon.
April 14, 1998
A parent has pulled his child out of Longfellow and placed the child in the BD classroom at Lemme. It is a relief not to have to deal with them and this is probably the best for the kid. It is a troubled family! I also suspended the child for two school days because of the incident mentioned in the April 1 notes. Now that that is taken care of another parent has flared up and wants to control who their child associates with. We are meeting with her on Thursday.
June 6, 1998
Whew! That school year is over! I hope I never have one like it again! This spring has been hectic--actually the whole year was hectic--and I haven't had much time to journal about it. I am looking forward to a nice break from the stress this summer. Near the end of the year we had another stabbing incident. A student used a pencil. I suspended her and her father is quite upset that this will be on her permanent record. He filed a grievance against me but I held my ground and the issue went to the superintendent. As far as I know she upheld my position.
Sunday, November 01, 2009
90s32 Always Something!
February 17, 1998 - We had yet another controversy recently. The 5/6 social studies teacher was using a simulation about the colonization of America. In one part of it the students journal about their reaction to being attacked by Indians. A local Native American found out about it and was enraged about the material. She called me and complained and now has filed a formal complaint with the district. I immediately stopped the teacher from continuing with it because they were very near the end of the simulation anyway. We could have finished it up but I thought this was the prudent thing to do. Fortunately, the material is on the district list of approved materials so the district has to defend it, not us. Several families, including some with Native American ancestry have let me know that they felt I should have let the kids finish the simulation. The person who complained doesn't have children at Longfellow. I think the issue was just too volatile for us to continue with it. The parent who gave the material to the outside person now regrets having done that and has been very apologetic about it.
In retrospect I probably shouldn’t have gave in so easy but I was weary of controversy and wanted to get on to more important issues. There is a process in the district to reconsider material and books being used but I felt this was such a volatile situation that it would be easier for everyone if we avoided it all together. Some people are just looking for an issue they can blow way out of proportion.
February 24, 1998- Wow! It continues! I had a student last week that stabbed another one with a pencil. It wasn't a serious wound but I had to suspend the student for two days of out and one day of in school suspension. Today, in the neighborhood, the house of one of our families had a minor fire. It was upsetting to one of the children because the fire trucks came and she was worried about her family.
March 2, 1998 - We all survived a great week of celebration for Longfellow's 80th birthday. It was a fun event for the school and the neighborhood. We are having some trouble with he 5/6 graders doing mean things to each other. I talked with one class about harassment. I don't think it sunk in so I may have to take additional steps. Barb Grohe was named National Superintendent of the Year last Friday. She is very deserving and I'm thrilled that she got it.
I came up with the idea of the 80th birthday celebration! It was a fun event and we had a lot of people visit. Many were former students and their family members. In the fall of that year we started the Longfellow picnic as a school and neighborhood event. It was a great success and still happens every September. Over the years their have been some prominent guests including Christie Vilsack, Herky, and many local athletes. It usually includes some local music.
In retrospect I probably shouldn’t have gave in so easy but I was weary of controversy and wanted to get on to more important issues. There is a process in the district to reconsider material and books being used but I felt this was such a volatile situation that it would be easier for everyone if we avoided it all together. Some people are just looking for an issue they can blow way out of proportion.
February 24, 1998- Wow! It continues! I had a student last week that stabbed another one with a pencil. It wasn't a serious wound but I had to suspend the student for two days of out and one day of in school suspension. Today, in the neighborhood, the house of one of our families had a minor fire. It was upsetting to one of the children because the fire trucks came and she was worried about her family.
March 2, 1998 - We all survived a great week of celebration for Longfellow's 80th birthday. It was a fun event for the school and the neighborhood. We are having some trouble with he 5/6 graders doing mean things to each other. I talked with one class about harassment. I don't think it sunk in so I may have to take additional steps. Barb Grohe was named National Superintendent of the Year last Friday. She is very deserving and I'm thrilled that she got it.
I came up with the idea of the 80th birthday celebration! It was a fun event and we had a lot of people visit. Many were former students and their family members. In the fall of that year we started the Longfellow picnic as a school and neighborhood event. It was a great success and still happens every September. Over the years their have been some prominent guests including Christie Vilsack, Herky, and many local athletes. It usually includes some local music.
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