The “Teachers Report” day, that is. We all have dreams about the day the kids come back, and some of them are doozies, the kind where we’re not wearing pants or the kids run amuck.
But this was a lovely dream about the day that’s usually sucked up by re-learning about Blood-borne Pathogens, the latest silver-bullet curriculum initiative designed to raise those scores, and pointless, endless announcements.
It went like this:
7:15 am Over the P.A., we hear strains of Morning Mood. The Principal begins speaking.
Good morning, Ore Creek Middle School! (in his best Robin Williams voice) Welcome home!
Here’s the plan for today: You’ll all be working in your rooms all day.
The office will be open all day for you to request and immediately pick up supplies. We have parent volunteers to help with this, because the office staff is super-busy, of course.
We’ve also set up a coffee station which will be replenished with hot beverages all morning, and there’s a box of donuts and muffins for you. Sign up for a slot to use the copy machines—we’ve rented an extra one for the week. I’ll be visiting each of your rooms at some point today, to say hello and answer any questions you may have about 2023-24.
From 11:30 to noon, there is a smorgasbord lunch, prepared by parent volunteers, in the cafeteria. Take a break, have a great lunch to fuel the rest of your day, and meet our new staff members then.
The library will be open all day, but remember—our media specialist is also setting up her room. I have hired extra IT support to staff a help desk all afternoon. Email IThelp@OreCreek if you want a visit from them this afternoon.
I will be sending you an email at the end of the day full of important announcements and a link to the required Blood-borne pathogens training. Sorry, gang—I know this is old news for most of you but the state requires it. You have two weeks to complete it. I’ll send reminders to those who still need to take care of this. Our first staff meeting will be in two weeks, once things get rolling.
I know that many of you have already been in, some for several days. On behalf of the district, I thank you for your dedication. I will be in over the weekend, if you have more to do, so the building will be open.
One last thing—several of us will be heading to Spike’s after school. In addition to their usual (cough) libations, Spike has set up lemonade and iced tea, on the house, for Ore Creek staff. Now—open your doors and give our custodians a hearty round of applause for making the building look so spiffy.
Hey. A teacher can dream…
Teacher in a strange land 
Now in my retirement, I wish I would dream about the donuts. Instead, as a former principal, I dream of the ongoing administrative quandaries that filled my day. It’s kind of like the ongoing dreams of not attending class all semester before the final exam. I often find myself waking and wishing I would dream about something else. Therefore, I do hope some day I have a dream like yours.
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In. Tears. If only! My last year, first day, we all got on school buses, were taken to a bowling alley and team-built bowling. If I hadn’t already decided I was retiring, that would have cinched it!
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Love the full time media specialist with additional tech support… “I Dreamed the Dream…”
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It’s so easy to make teachers happy; why do so few even try?
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You know, that’s a good question. Many years ago, my school district had an annual art show, in May. A year’s worth of student art work (elementary, middle school and HS) displayed all over the building at the HS, accompanied by snacks (Home Ec–it was that long ago), a free car wash, dramatic sketches and impromptu dancing–and music from my students, in small groups, around the building. It was fabulous. And of course, a LOT of work to set up and run (on a Saturday).
Finally, the music, art, and other elective teachers lobbied to get it into Schedule B in the contract. We wanted (get this) $200 for each teacher who participated and $400 for the HS Art teacher who started and coordinated this annual event– a grand total of $1600. It became a bargaining chip, something the negotiators could concede on, for greater gains for all staff. And, of course they did cave. The admin side argued that $1600 was the proverbial camel’s nose–pretty soon, we’d all want $300 or some other ridiculous amount, blah blah. The Art Show lasted one more year, then we all agreed to scrap it.
But it was that same principle: Imagine if every time a teacher came up with a great idea that involved more work, an admin would be quick to say—hey, we need to give you a small stipend for this, because it’s really good for kids and programming? We could have been bought off with 200 bucks. It would have been easy to make us happy.
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Completely agree!
Our contract had a hard won provision that the first two school days were divided equally between admin and teachers preparing their classrooms. Our new admin didn’t like this and tried to hold us hostage by scheduling a buffet breakfast (traditionally paid for by admin) followed by a couple of hours of meetings. The union reps objected and the response was teachers could “contribute” for the brunch or it would just be cancelled. We went with the cancellation because teachers are capable of feeding themselves and it was OUR NEGOCIATED time.
An needlessly inauspicious beginning to the year which, of course, was just a prelude to what followed.
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Oh, my, Nancy! Nirvana!
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This would indeed be a dream come true!
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[…] I Had a Dream about the First Day of School actually was one of my most-read blogs. I was wading around in teachers’ August complaints about bad professional development, endless and pointless staff meetings and all the unpaid work involved in classroom re-organization and wrote the blog in about 20 minutes. It struck a nerve. […]
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