Niche

Originally I was scheduled to work today 7-3 at the tolls... but with my resignation I asked them to find someone else to do the shift and they were able to oblige.  (Thank you kindly!) so I was able to sleep in today.  Yesterday after work I called Sara and she and Maria were having a ladies night because Phil was coaching football, so I went up and joined the fun.  We had a great visit.  We attempted to make a fire, but the wood was a bit damp, but it was fun to get it going and watch it peter out.  Maria loves the fire.  We ate outside and as it was getting cooler I welcomed heading inside to hang out.  We danced, Maria, like her mom, loves music.  She's got some good moves!

So the 300 cow story has gone viral!  At least at a district level.  Not a bad reputation I suppose.  This week I went to a meeting with other female administrators in two of the counties in southern Maine.  There were ten of us there.  It was nice... the dynamics are interesting.  I am not sure how much I will share with the group... (because two of the other women there worked in the building where I am currently working and have connections with people there... and are not... known for keeping information to themselves...so I don't feel like they would be neutral and don't feel confident that information would not come back to my staff.)

So... one of my projects this year.. one of the students... is going well.  She is a student who has been pretty disengaged for a long time.  She is not the type of kid who likes people to help her for the sake of helping her... she doesn't trust people and has no issue telling the principal to f off  last year when he tried to intervene in a situation which was his first interaction with her... she's been described to me as feral ... which is sad in and of itself... but I can see where that description would come from.  She likes few, trusts even fewer...

One of the men I work with, who I absolutely admire, went to a conference last year and he told me the biggest thing he learned there was that schools quietly uninvite students to attend school.  By doing things like not offering alternate classes, by making it a huge hassle to make up tests/work etc... students who are struggling may not have the energy to fight those battles... This is a student who makes me constantly think about that.  In Maine, students in grades 6-12 have individual laptops.  (for now anyway, this may be changing... to ipads or other tablets, or different laptops) Of course there are times when the machines get damaged and need repairs.  Families have the option of buying insurance to cover damages.  Some families buy the insurance some can't.  ($26 is a reasonable amount for insurance for the year, and we take payment plans.)  In middle school this student had damaged her laptop, but due to clerical errors she was not billed for it.  and was given a laptop the last two years.  This year, suddenly she was not allowed to have a laptop because she owes $175... which she had no idea about.  She said if she has to be in classes where everyone else is doing their work on laptops and she doesn't have one she will not come to school.  I believe her.  So I asked the tech guru what we could do and he said that the protocol is having the family pay insurance for this year plus 1/3 of the cost of the repair to get the laptop to use and that a payment plan needs to be established to pay for the rest of the cost.  So... 1/3 of $175 is about $60, plus the $26 for the insurance is $86.  This is a kid who is kind of flying solo.  She doesn't have $86... so I asked her if she could pay the insurance and she said she could.  OK... step one, check... step two... talk further with the tech guy.  When pressed he said he allows each assistant principal to have four 'cases' every year where he will allow the laptop to be given out without following protocol... if the assistant principal feels that the circumstances are special enough.  So yes I used one of these special favors to get a laptop for her.  Now... When he told me he would bring me a laptop and gave it to me I was very happy. I didn't take it out of the case right away because I was heading to a meeting.  Later that night I pulled it out, wanting to charge it for her so she could use it the next day and this is what I saw:

Actually I didn't think to take a picture until after I had cleaned some of it off.  But it was all sticky.  Someone had put a sticker on it and then put newspaper on it.  So ugly... And I immediately thought, way to send her an un-invitation.  And was not happy.  So the next day, with the help of a magic eraser, goo be gone, and some elbow grease, I managed to get it to look like this: 

Much better... 

So the other part was trying to convince her to pay off her debt... So I carefully approached her when I gave her the laptop, showed her the picture of the before shot and she asked why I cleaned it... and told her there was no way I was going to let her have a laptop that was in bad shape, that she deserved to have a good laptop, like everyone else.  I also told her I had taken pictures of it so that she couldn't be blamed for any of that sticker mess.  She seemed happy and when I asked her about repaying the debt, she said there was no way she could... and I told her I had an idea.  That for every five days of school she attends, we would 'pay' $10 towards her debt.  She, to my surprise, said, "Yeah, sure I can do that. But how is that going to really work?" I told her to leave that up to me.  I have yet to figure it out, but I will.  (I think that my secretary the other AP and I are going to use out bottle money to pay it off.)  So, to pay off her debt, she needs to come to school for 88 days.  And I figure that if she can get going on that with a good start, she will build a good habit of being at school.  I created a sheet, like a checkbook register, for her to keep track of her days of attendance.  (Another thing we have done is have her homeroom be assigned to my office with my secretary who she has a good relationship with.)  So each Friday during homeroom, they complete her attendance for the week.  And so far... she has attended 100% of the days!!!  I am so excited.  She's a kid, like I said, who has earned very few credits.  She is smart and this year she was enrolled in the same classes she was enrolled in the last two years, because she had not passed them and had not earned the credits.  So I talked to some teachers... one year she took a math class and had high B's for the first two quarters, then stopped attending and based on the attendance failure policy (that is no longer in place!) if you miss three classes without being excused, you fail the class, she failed her classes for the last two quarters.  This made it impossible for her to pass for the year.  So after talking with guidance and the principal, and her teachers, who know she is a smart kid, all agreed that it was silly for her to sit through the first half of classes she has already passed.  So we figured out a way to put her into some of the level 2 classes for the year.  We have found ways for her to do some independent studies, earn credits for the half year she passed, and provide a chance  to take the second half of those classes later this year... So, she could potentially earn 9 or 10 credits this year, which could put her in a very good position to finish high school in two more years, not three, which is what she anticipated.  She has shared with me that she knows she screwed up (Not her words, but...) that her life sucked for a while because of family stuff.  She used to play sports, was an incredible athlete, and that when things at home fell apart, she didn't know what to do.  She knows she wants to either graduate or drop out and told me that this year would be the deciding factor.  My goal is to not only get her to attend, but get her to a place where she is eligible to participate in sports and get her back into those activities... She's also a kid that when you want to talk to her you need to have her come to you.  So the other day she was in my office and I walked by on my way out and said, "Oh, I have a question for you.  Not knowing you well, are you the type of person who would want to know if I heard good things about you?"  She said, "What do you mean?" I said, "Suppose a teacher came up to me at open house for the sole purpose of telling me how good you are doing... would you want to know?" She smiled and said, "Who was it?" I said, "You have to answer the question first."  She said, "Sure," shrugging her shoulders with a bit of a smile.  ( I love it when kids act so tough, but are really not so tough!)  So I said, "I'll tell you in a minute I gotta go do something."  She yelled my name as I walked away smiling even bigger.  So I turned around and said to her... "Ok.. I suppose I can tell you." And shared with her the interaction I had with one of her teachers.  She was pleased that a teacher had sought me out to share good information about her.  I haven't checked her grades yet, but I hope she is doing well.  I am debating about telling her she could get a 'bonus' at the end of the first quarter,  if her grades are all above an 80, but worry that would add too much pressure... So I may wait for grades to come out and then give her a card if she has those grades...which I fully anticipate she will have.  

So... I know people who know me, were worried that this new job would take me away from what I love about working with kids, getting to make those connections... and I was a bit worried too.  But I am able to make those connections, in a bit of a different way, but... still make them.  And I feel like I can help in different ways...Like telling a teacher this week he needs to make accommodations for a kid who told me his excuse for not doing it was that he was teaching an AP (Advanced Placement) class... and my response to him was, yes, this is an AP class, and this girl, she is an AP student who needs accommodations.  And reminding another teacher that his attendance at meetings about students he works with is expected, that waiting to get the minutes is not enough.  

  I have found my niche! 

And of course, there are kids right now who are not so happy with me... kids who I am holding accountable... and while they may hate me for now... I hope there are lessons to be learned.  (I revoked senior privileges from a girl this week for speeding in the parking lot. (Senior privilege means that if a kid has a study hall they can leave school.  For kids who have them first thing in the morning, they can sleep in, and if they are at the end of the day they get to leave early. so they are quite coveted.) As it works out, it was the second time I had spoken to her about her speed.  This time, I saw her because we were outside after the fire alarm had been triggered and she was running late for school.  She came flying around a corner, flew past a fire engine, and screeched into the parking lot.  At first she didn't see what the big deal was... so I gave her a lecture reminding her that there could have been people in between cars, emergency personnel near their trucks and told her she could have hurt someone.  She's a good kid, never been in trouble.  But, seriously, driving like that, is going to get into an accident.  She ended up in tears, when I put her on the phone with her parents (so glad that having them tell their parents still works to really get to some kids!) Her mom later told me that she never cries.  (Rico, I know... you are proud of me for making a kid cry!) 

I hope, perhaps naively so, that she slows down and thinks more about safety when driving.  

Wow.. I have even more to write about... 

Cyberbullying.  Un. Believable.  The amount of drama that is created through texting, facebook, twitter, and email is amazing to me.  That has, to be honest, taken up a huge amount of my time.  Yesterday I asked the principal and other asst. principal if I could hold a movie night in the auditorium.  I want to show the movie Cyberbullying.  It's an ABC family movie that starts out pretty cheesy, to be honest.  But as it unfolds it really gets to the heart of what cyberbullying can do to someone and how the day to day interactions of kids keep that drama going.  I would love to have it shown at our high school where our kids, with their parents, watch the movie.  I would also like to have some people available after the movie to talk with families about it.  The state of Maine has instituted a change in our bullying laws that pertain to school.  Events of bullying that happen off school grounds, which include the cyberbullying is not mandated as something we must report.  We can suspend students for their online bullying, their text messages, and their off campus involvement, if their actions could cause another student to feel that school is an unsafe place for them.  I applaud the state of Main for this new law and hope it helps our kids.  

I suppose that's it for now... I am going to try to unpack a few boxes in my guest room and then later head to a marching band competition.