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poldimoreno

As I sit here on Spring Break, thinking about what exactly to prepare for my FA2, I’m thinking of all of the different activities we have completed as a group and cohort. I think that we’ve all grown so much in the last two years. I now believe that I can give a much better presentation, it will not be an Ignite or totally Zen, but it will be somewhere in between. Taking parts of both will work well with who I am. I feel that i can also use that virtually anywhere. I don’t believe that I can use the Ignite or Zen when presenting to the School Board, but a combination of the two will work well.

I’m also thinking of the two 360 assessments that we did. I was able to glean some information about myself from them, but I think I would have gotten a whole lot more out of it if more people had responded to it. How can you MAKE someone whom you supervise take a survey about you? While they could give me some great feedback, I’m sure that there may have been a bit of trepidation about taking the survey. I had one teacher tell me after they filled it out that they gave me a ‘Raving Review”. I responded that I was not looking for a raving review, I wanted an honest assessment of how I am as a leader. With that being said, I don’t know if I got an “honest” assessment from anyone. I like to hope that I did, but I’ll never know. I just have to go on with what I got from them, reflect on the results and try to improve myself.

Now the FA2 – I’m still not 100% sure of what to include. I’m still not a fan of open ended assignments. I’m thinking about discussing my goals for the second year, and how I did or did not meet them. I will also discuss some areas to grow on for the third and final year. I will have to include goals for the final year. Then I will discuss my mini capstone, what I learned, what I will do differently on the final capstone as opposed to what I did during the mini. A little more of this and a little more of that and I will have my 30 minute presentation completed. Wow, and I thought that talking about myself for 10 minutes on the 360 presentation was hard! I can’t even let my sense of humor out during this one.

Well let me get off of this and get back to work on preparing my FA2! I also need a bit more relaxation time for the rest of Spring Break! Best of luck to all the others in my cohort and to those in the other cohorts. The end of year two is in sight, I’m even seeing the light at the end of the preverbal tunnel for this whole program.

poldimoreno

As I sit here on Spring Break, thinking about what exactly to prepare for my FA2, I’m thinking of all of the different activities we have completed as a group and cohort. I think that we’ve all grown so much in the last two years. I now believe that I can give a much better presentation, it will not be an Ignite or totally Zen, but it will be somewhere in between. Taking parts of both will work well with who I am. I feel that i can also use that virtually anywhere. I don’t believe that I can use the Ignite or Zen when presenting to the School Board, but a combination of the two will work well.

I’m also thinking of the two 360 assessments that we did. I was able to glean some information about myself from them, but I think I would have gotten a whole lot more out of it if more people had responded to it. How can you MAKE someone whom you supervise take a survey about you? While they could give me some great feedback, I’m sure that there may have been a bit of trepidation about taking the survey. I had one teacher tell me after they filled it out that they gave me a ‘Raving Review”. I responded that I was not looking for a raving review, I wanted an honest assessment of how I am as a leader. With that being said, I don’t know if I got an “honest” assessment from anyone. I like to hope that I did, but I’ll never know. I just have to go on with what I got from them, reflect on the results and try to improve myself.

Now the FA2 – I’m still not 100% sure of what to include. I’m still not a fan of open ended assignments. I’m thinking about discussing my goals for the second year, and how I did or did not meet them. I will also discuss some areas to grow on for the third and final year. I will have to include goals for the final year. Then I will discuss my mini capstone, what I learned, what I will do differently on the final capstone as opposed to what I did during the mini. A little more of this and a little more of that and I will have my 30 minute presentation completed. Wow, and I thought that talking about myself for 10 minutes on the 360 presentation was hard! I can’t even let my sense of humor out during this one.

Well let me get off of this and get back to work on preparing my FA2! I also need a bit more relaxation time for the rest of Spring Break! Best of luck to all the others in my cohort and to those in the other cohorts. The end of year two is in sight, I’m even seeing the light at the end of the preverbal tunnel for this whole program.

poldimoreno

Our school, like most high schools, has a no cellphone policy. This means that students are allowed to have their cellphone on them (book bag) or in their locker as long as it is turned off. Of course most high school students will try to get around this, since students of this age seem to not be able to go five minutes without their phone. I had received a confiscated phone, and the student came to the office within a few minutes requesting that his/her phone be returned. I explained that the phone would be kept for a week since this was the first time, per school board policy. The student was not happy and wanted to call home. I politely told the student that their pass did not say to make a call so I sent them back to class. Within 45 mins I received a call from an upset parent that the phone was being held. I tried to get a word in edge wise while the parent was telling me how much the phone cost and how much the bill was and they reminded me, not in a very polite way, that I did not pay the bill. Once the parent finished I informed them that I could, as a courtesy, return the phone to them but they would need to come to the school. The parent came in and I returned the phone and handed them a copy of the cellphone policy, a sheet that we use that outlines the policy. I also pointed out that the next time we would keep the phone for a month. Well this didn’t sit well. The policy does not state what happens to a student who is defiant and refuses to turn the phone over. We have an unwritten “rule” in the school that a student who refuses a teacher will receive a suspension. Many parents have told this child that they are to take the suspension over turning the phone over. I really question myself as to how feasible the policy is. I have lost an entire drawer in my office to hold the confiscated phones. I have to maintain a clip board with a spread sheet that has all of the offenders. I had to create a form for the front office to use when the phone is turned over. So basically I see that I (all admin) are the ones who come out on the losing end of this policy. We get cussed, by parents. We get fussed at, by parents and student and teachers, and we have to keep up with these phones. Most times the parents have insurance on the phone and they go to their provider and tell them the phone was lost and the student has a new phone by the end of the day. It seems like it’s fighting a losing battle, some days. Others I feel like we are making headway in keeping the kids off the phones in class. It would be easier if the parents would support us. We have talked in class about how lack of support can keep a policy from being successful. This policy has been around for about 5 years now, yet parents always act like it’s news to them. Therefore, I have to say that there is a lack of support for this policy in the community. The school board, however, supports us on it at this time. I guess not enough parents have complained about it.

poldimoreno

The Virginia House presented a bill recently that would require school administrators contact the parent of a student before the school takes action on a students for a serious violation. The bill define a serious violation as a violation of a school board policy or the compulsory school attendance requirements. Some members of the Virginia House and Senate have even shown support for school being required to contact a parent before they can interview a student about any possible infractions. This type of policy would be seen as one that would change the culture of schools – for the worse. The implementation of this policy would be required – more than likely an unfunded mandate. If passed this policy would make school a much more dangerous place. Many parents do not inform schools of changes in contact information, and when you are able to contact a relative of a student, the relative claims that they will let the parent know that you want to talk to them while refusing to give the school the updated phone number. Just the other day at my school we had a parent of a student who needed their inhaler and the parent would not answer any calls that came from the schools phone numbers. When we were able to use the student’s cellphone to call the parent picked up right away. The negative possibilities of this policy far outweigh any possible positives. Can you imagine a school shooting because a school administrator was not able to get in touch with a parent and was not legally allowed to talk with the student about a possible gun on campus? Or knowing of a student in possession of drugs and not being able to take them. The bill also states that the school would be required to notify the parent before any possible court proceeding due to non compliance with the compulsory school attendance requirements. There are again many times when trying to get in touch with a parent to hold a truancy conference is harder than having lunch with Pope Benedict XVI. I believe that this bill may have been tabled, but there is a similar measure that is still alive in the Virginia Senate. This idea presents itself every year it seems. The only way that I can see that this bill would help to make schools safer is if there is a requirement for parents to inform the school when they update their contact information. There would also need to be a requirement for parents to arrive at the school that very day within X time so that schools can interview the student if the parent needs to be present (which was another idea presented in the Virginia General Assembly). I can see it now, I get in touch with a parent, and explain that I need to interview their child and they tell me that they will be able to come to school the second Tuesday of next week, and I am stalled in my chance to keep the school safe. I have numerous parents who when I ask them to come in for a meeting, they claim that they have no way to arrive at school for a meeting. Or they tell you that they will come for a meeting and they never show up. It is the same with parents of students who have an IEP, who do not bother to show up for the IEP meetings. I can see that this type of policy would allow the inmates to run the asylum so to speak. The school always have less and less power to discipline students and this would take just about every last bit of it away. Schools would become a free for all and student and staff safety would be forever compromised.

poldimoreno

I have been thinking about this blog topic for about a week now, trying to find the direction that I would go with. Then while I’m thinking about the comment by the new President of Penn State stating that the school will “not only do what is required under the law, we will do what is right” This weekend I realized that this entire scandal killed Joe Pa. It seems to me that the man who so many referred to as Coach wished he could go back and change what he had done or not done. This man who was a father to thousands of young men over his forty plus years at Penn State did what was required by law. The question is did he do what was right? As I thought more and more about this I was also looking at my schools fall 2011 Sol data. Then it hit me. Doing what the law requires is what is right, just like scoring a 400 on an Sol is passing. It is the minimum needed to pass of do what is right. You can do more. With an Sol you can score a passed advanced. When you not only do what is required but do what is right you get a passed advanced score.

What is my reaction to the statement you might ask? I feel that he is absolutely right, we should always do what is right, not just what is required. I think that as a person in the public eye, you are held to a higher standard, unless your a big money pro athlete who gets away with anything the normal person would not. You are expected to demonstrate the highest moral character. Joe Pa, for years was seen as a man among men, did what was required. If he had scored a passed advance he would not have stopped when he reported it and nothing happened, he would have gone further, but where would he have gone? I ask myself this,  in school if I suspect child abuse I am required to alert social services. If they do nothing, I’ve done my job. Being right could be to go an confront the offending parent, but that could be dangerous to my health. So what do you do, do you keep calling? Who do you report Social Services to if they do nothing? I could go further, but where do you go, who do you call? I think that if that is all you did and something terrible happened you would feel horrible, as I believe Joe Pa felt, there would be that feeling of what if…. The challenge is to always score that passed advanced! To always do what is right in everything that we do, that however is easier said than done.