Announcements for the Week

• Accelerated Reader Store—I have added to our calendar dates for Accelerated Reader Stores for the remainder of the year. If you would like to add them to your personal calendar, they are: Nov. 18, Jan. 13, Feb. 24, Apr. 21, and May 22
• Field trips—Mr. Messer is now allowing field trips. This had been under careful consideration. The cost per mile is going up to $1.50. Please keep in mind that fuel costs may fluctuate greatly in the future, and we have no way of predicting oil prices or even the availability of gasoline. That $1.50 price is not guaranteed to remain the same. As long as everyone understands on the front end that flexibility is going to be required, we will be OK.
• Instructional Money—You have $485 available to spend on your debit card. This is after the $40 was given to the collective for the copier. Be sure to keep a record of what you spend and your remaining balance. STOP! After reading the last sentence, one of 3 things should happen: 1) You think to yourself you already do this and cannot imagine why anybody would have to be told such a common sense thing; 2) You stop right now and make a ledger, which will involve about 30 seconds, far less time than it will take you to reread this blog to pick up your to-dos; or 3) Jot a reminder on your to-do list to make a ledger. What do you do with that ledger? The simplest thing to do is let it live in the file folder with the charge tickets you accumulate. The rule is before you can drop a ticket in there, you add it to the ledger. That will work.
• Bathrooms—Here is an area where I think we can make a big difference in a hurry. Please appoint a boy and girl to be bathroom monitors. This duty could rotate on a daily or weekly basis or any other manner you choose. The idea would be for that monitor to take a quick look at the condition of the restroom before your class enters and after your class leaves. Toilets should be flushed and the all paper in trash cans. Our custodians have told me about times they are finding rolls of toilet paper in toilets. One point often brought up is that mischief can happen when an individual student goes to the restroom. While these students are sometimes hard to catch, we can narrow the window of time that mischief occurs and then ask teachers who was out of their rooms during that time. Also, talking with your students about the expectations we have for our restrooms will go a long way. We can take care of this problem quickly if we all attack it together.
• Special Education Case Coming Before the Supreme Court—This link takes you to a news story which has implications nationwide. The question regards when parents and the school system disagree over proper placement of a child which one bears the burden to prove their position. Since this case is one that impacts our profession, we all need to know at least a little about it.