Posts

Interviewing

 When interviewing, do you have some questions that you use to gauge a certain school? One of the things I found useful was to ask: - What curriculum or set of standards do you follow? The best schools will answer with something that can be referenced. Some red flags I found for myself were schools that respond with names of textbook publishers, or those that don't even name one.

Priorities

A notice went out this afternoon about all staff and students needing to be in formal uniforms at 10AM on Thursday (in 2 days time) for a "whole-school" photograph. They didn't even give us 48 hours notice. Normally, I would just brush this off as one of those "inconsistencies" one has to deal with when working for an organization that doesn't quite understand we are a school. My issue with this is that my students just happen to be taking their MAP testing during this time. So speaking of "priorities," how is this place claiming to be "student-centered" when a test designed to "measure academic growth" is being interrupted by "we need pretty pictures for the whole school"? 

Safety rules

What do you do when a child disregards safety rules being reinforced by the homeroom teacher, the teacher's aide, another volunteering adult in the room, and a peer, and the child still goes ahead and does the thing they were specifically told NOT to touch? (context: hot glue gun)  I'm genuinely scared for this child's safety. FOUR times I've witnessed this child reaching for the hot glue gun to work on their art project after repeatedly being explained to them that they must consult an adult--I'm not sure if it's blatant disregard or just they don't understand either of the TWO languages the safety protocols for the class being spelled out.