I'm noticing a pattern -- each time my principal takes a day off . . . strange things happen. Today was just one of those days. Luckily I didn’t leave my coffee in the car this morning, but I was ready for another cup pretty quickly.
• Started the day with my last bus safety drill of this calendar year. It went well.
• As I came back into the building, I met with parents who were concerned that I had not handled a discipline issue the way that they would have liked for me to. Upon further investigation, it appeared that their child told them a much different version of events than he/she had shared with me the day before. We called the child into the conversation and….the child was very adamant that he/she had told me a much different story than my notes and memory reflects. Talk about an uncomfortable situation…
• This meeting is interrupted by a teacher running into my office with a child who had broken her arm a few weeks ago. The child was crying hysterically because she had slipped in the hallway and fallen on her arm -- she was running down the hall wearing flip/flops... Of course the nurse had not arrived yet. Our saint of a guidance counselor took charge of the situation and I was free to rejoin the very uncomfortable meeting.
• I then was called by a lower grade teacher who informs me that she had a student tell the entire class that a little boy stripped naked on the school bus this morning, but when she told the bus driver he didn’t do anything. I immediately go into crisis mode/fact finding mission. After about two hours of speaking to students, bus driver and watching BUS TAPES we came to the conclusion that the incident just did not occur. The teacher and I spoke with the child again and after about 20 minutes or so, she admitted that she made the entire story up – resulting in my second uncomfortable conversation with parents. How does one open this type of telephone conversation with parents? I was greeted by two very supportive and understanding parents who found both the severity and humor of the situation.
• As I was walking down the hall a little later, a teacher’s aide motioned for me to come to a classroom (younger students). It seems that she and the teacher had come across the small ‘pellets’ in the floor. As they investigated further, they decided that it was……yep you guessed it…poop...human poop. They had checked around the room and these things were everywhere, but could not determine from where the pellets originated. We called the custodian in to clean up and mop the floor -- never discovered where they came from.
• My roughest point in the day came when I found out that one of our students who is currently placed in a foster home was going to be removed from that home and placed in another outside of our school district – we were only given about 30 minutes notice. The poor child has been shuffled from home to home his entire life and has captured the heart of everyone that has come into contact with this year. When we spoke to him about the situation, his expression immediately transformed from a happy, loving child to a blank stare that he had at the beginning of the year – he just looked empty. This was a very emotional time for all of us involved – teachers, administrators, students. I’ve never felt so helpless in all of my life.
• Started the day with my last bus safety drill of this calendar year. It went well.
• As I came back into the building, I met with parents who were concerned that I had not handled a discipline issue the way that they would have liked for me to. Upon further investigation, it appeared that their child told them a much different version of events than he/she had shared with me the day before. We called the child into the conversation and….the child was very adamant that he/she had told me a much different story than my notes and memory reflects. Talk about an uncomfortable situation…
• This meeting is interrupted by a teacher running into my office with a child who had broken her arm a few weeks ago. The child was crying hysterically because she had slipped in the hallway and fallen on her arm -- she was running down the hall wearing flip/flops... Of course the nurse had not arrived yet. Our saint of a guidance counselor took charge of the situation and I was free to rejoin the very uncomfortable meeting.
• I then was called by a lower grade teacher who informs me that she had a student tell the entire class that a little boy stripped naked on the school bus this morning, but when she told the bus driver he didn’t do anything. I immediately go into crisis mode/fact finding mission. After about two hours of speaking to students, bus driver and watching BUS TAPES we came to the conclusion that the incident just did not occur. The teacher and I spoke with the child again and after about 20 minutes or so, she admitted that she made the entire story up – resulting in my second uncomfortable conversation with parents. How does one open this type of telephone conversation with parents? I was greeted by two very supportive and understanding parents who found both the severity and humor of the situation.
• As I was walking down the hall a little later, a teacher’s aide motioned for me to come to a classroom (younger students). It seems that she and the teacher had come across the small ‘pellets’ in the floor. As they investigated further, they decided that it was……yep you guessed it…poop...human poop. They had checked around the room and these things were everywhere, but could not determine from where the pellets originated. We called the custodian in to clean up and mop the floor -- never discovered where they came from.
• My roughest point in the day came when I found out that one of our students who is currently placed in a foster home was going to be removed from that home and placed in another outside of our school district – we were only given about 30 minutes notice. The poor child has been shuffled from home to home his entire life and has captured the heart of everyone that has come into contact with this year. When we spoke to him about the situation, his expression immediately transformed from a happy, loving child to a blank stare that he had at the beginning of the year – he just looked empty. This was a very emotional time for all of us involved – teachers, administrators, students. I’ve never felt so helpless in all of my life.
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