PMP:Encore06 – Essential Questions for a New School Year (& Predicting the Weather)
Summary: How are you anticipating the start of a new school year?<br> This week I wanted to share some thoughts from a previous post as reminders for your new school year:<br> Predicting Your School Climate<br> Sometimes my left elbow aches. I have a scar there from when I broke it falling from a horse almost twenty years ago. When it starts hurting, I can usually be certain the weather will turn stormy. My aching elbow reminds me of another story. When I was a boy, I often helped on my Granddad’s family farm. His brother was my Uncle Jimmy. One day Uncle Jimmy and I were driving in his pick-up truck. The windows were down, and I was hanging my arm out of it and playing in the breeze as we rumbled down the gravel roadway.<br> As we passed a nearby pond, the cattle were gathering around for watering, and two calves were prancing about the field, butting heads and chasing one another. Uncle Jimmy pulled the truck to a stop and nodded that direction.<br><br> “See those calves?” he asked.<br><br> “Yes sir.”<br><br> “There’s a storm coming.”<br><br> “What do you mean?” I asked.<br> The skies were blue, the weather warm. (This was long before the days of GPS or Smart-phones.) “Whenever you see calves acting like that, you can be sure there’s bad weather on the way.”<br> I didn’t argue or ask anymore questions. He put the truck back in drive, and we went onto the next job in quiet thought. The next morning I woke up to the crash of lightening and the rumble of a thunderstorm. Uncle Jimmy had spent all his life on the farm, and it should have been no surprise that he could predict the weather by watching the behavior of his cattle.<br> Predicting School Climate<br> Sometimes I like to remind myself that the ups and downs of a school climate are often predictable. Obviously, plenty of unpredictables happen too, but there are “seasons” we face each year that shouldn’t take us by surprise. One of the those seasons is summer hiring. Another is the start of school.<br> As you approach the start of school, you can expect that teachers, students, and parents will want answers to the following questions:<br> <br> * What is my schedule?<br> * What can I expect each day?<br> * What are the ground-rules in school-wide and in my classes?<br> <br> It seems so simple in concept, but sometimes we forget to keep an eye out for the cues of what is coming next. For instance, from the principal’s office, start of school means tasks like:<br> <br> * Updating/printing faculty handbooks and duty rosters<br> * Communicating with teachers dates of new teacher training and professional development<br> * Updating websites and media outlets with dates for schedule pick-up, freshman orientation, and start of school<br> <br> And as we approach day one, the anticipation, nervous energy, dread, and excitement all mix together for the rush we call beginning the school year.<br> <br> Helpful Start-of-School Questions<br> Whatever season you are preparing to face, don’t forget to take time to study your landscape. One way to be prepare is by relying on those who have been down the road ahead of you. For teachers, I like to recommend, Harry Wong’s First Days Of School for a great reminder on the processes, procedures, and ground-rules students need and expect day one of school. In it, he outlines the essentials for establishing, organizing, and implementing good routines and procedures for students. I call it “teaching with both sides of your brain” or “teaching with one hand while managing with the other.”<br> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/First-Days-School-Effective-Teacher/dp/0962936022" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Harry Wong</a> likes to remind teachers of seven things students will want to know on the first day of school:<br> <br> * Am I in the right room?<br> * Where am I supposed to sit?<br> * Who is the teacher as a person?<br> * Will the teacher treat me as a human being?<br>
