Back To School Day

6:30 a.m. - The alarm rings. I don't want to get up.  I don't want to go to school.

6:50 a.m. - I get up and begin the morning routine.  I have to give it some thought since I haven't done this since last May. My favorite part is drinking coffee at my computer.

8:30 a.m. - At school. The meetings are in the library, my room. A table of fruit, cheese, bread and crackers.  A table of donuts and other sweets.  An ice chest of sodas.  An ice chest of water.  Where's the coffee? What?!?  No coffee? Get your priorities straight!

9:00 a.m. - The presentations begin. So many mandated trainings that we have to "learn" every year: Blood borne pathogens, Special Ed Confidentiality, FERPA... Because they're important, we go over them year after year.

10:15 a.m. - We hear about local programs: Speech Therapy, Study Island, School-wide Book Read (Hey, that's me!), 21st Century Grant ($1 million over 5 years).

11:30 a.m. - LUNCH.  I stay in the library and eat a ham and cheese croissant sandwich with carrots, celery and baby tomatoes followed by strawberries, grapes, pineapple chunks and a plum. Tasty.

12:30 p.m. - Principal is up. He goes over lesson plans, grade book, Common Core, pacing calendars, remediation, credit recovery, school handbook, class syllabi, State Department of Ed. website, and the new evaluation tool.

2:30 p.m. - Superintendent presents about bullying and how to eliminate it and strategies to improve our students' writing.

3:30 p.m. - Let's blow this joint.

We have homework: study the new evaluation tool and have questions to ask tomorrow.  My question is, why is this information so boring?  It doesn't have to be. With the emphasis on better writing, the challenge is to write instructions, explanations, and other tedious information creatively so that people will want to read it. The most popular non-fiction genre in current publishing is creative nonfiction.  Get with the program!

8:00 p.m. - The Closer final episode.

9:00 p.m. - Major Crimes, spin-off from The Closer.

10:15 p.m. - Finish blog post.

11:00 p.m. - Go to bed.  Tomorrow's another day.