first day of school.
September 4, 2007Well, I lived through the first day back to school. Granted, the students don’t return until tomorrow and Thursday, but today was adventuresome enough without them. The superintendent spoke to us about this year’s goals and priorities, which include better communication & childhood obesity. Apparently the district is phasing out allowing elementary students to bring unhealthy things such as “store-bought cupcakes” for birthday parties. Rice cakes all around, kids! Doesn’t it make you want to come to school just that much more? And as far as better communication goes, I think the district should start by proofreading the letters they send out and the publications they spend thousands of dollars to design, only for me to discover there are words missing and things misspelled. But that’s just me. My favorite part of his presentation occurred when he informed us that, “We are the dream factory.” Now, while “We are the dream factory” is an incredible band name, it really is not very inspiring despite the fact that it sounds like it should be.
Later on, about an hour before the end of the school day, someone came down to inform us that we needed to repack the small room that we were using for one of our reading lab classrooms and move it into the somewhat-larger-yet-still-too-small-for-two-classrooms-plus-an-aide room next door. Last week one of the assistant superintendents walked down to see how our rooms were arranged and approved it. Now they want us to pack up, move, and unpack again with less than 24 hours until the students start. I’m all for being flexible; this really borders on breaking teachers rather than just bending them, though.
In any case, tomorrow will find me meeting the first slew of non-cleavage-baring, non-cell-phone-carrying, non-inappropriate teenagers who will flood our building in nothing but deference to the changes in our code of conduct. It should be exciting! (Seriously, though, I’ve missed the kids and am looking forward to seeing their smiling faces as I buy their love with candy. Calorie-free, communication-improving candy.)
I like that obesity is a priority, rather than education. Ah, public school system! Well, good luck tomorrow! (and that is a brilliant band name)
Ahhh, the “Superintendent Speech”. We have a new superintendent, and as luck would have it, I have gotten to hear her speech twice. Her speech concluded with the audience being “urged” to get on their feet and do the Electric Slide. Since the audience consisted of county personnel (on both occasions), it was more of a requirement than a suggestion. Unfortunately, being a middle-aged Baptist white girl, I never really mastered the Electric Slide…..so I just stood up and sort of clapped awkwardly….