Monday Monday See What's Become of my Sunday

Today actually went pretty well. We instituted the new and improved schedule decided on by the staff last Friday. The reason for the change: Students using bathroom and 'water' breaks as excuses to wander the halls for 15 minutes getting out of class. We added a couple of bathroom breaks into the schedule in exchange for putting a moratorium on classtime bathroom/water breaks. Of course it was met with staunch resistance from our student population. Unfortunately the students who respectfully wait for an appropriate time to tinkle were outnumbered by the problem students and so the new rule is a little unfair to them. We also addressed cubby issues (yes high schoolers have cubbies) and posted school rules and schedules all over the school. We might possibly address the school rules next because they include several rules that don't seems to serve a point.

No Gum chewing. This can be a problem in schools where students click it and clack it and twirl it and put it under their desks. At our school it really is just an oral fixation suppressor. I hope we allow gum soon so that my students will stop chewing on everything else, rulers, pens, pencils, straws and god knows what else.

No Hats or Hoods. I agree with the hoods. Nothing is more annoying than a student retreating to the inner sanctums of their skater hoody. The hat thing really bothers me though. I know its a tribal respect issue but I LOVE HATS. Hats don't denote gang affiliation, usually they are beanies because our school is freezing sometimes. I have a ton of hair and sometimes I just want to put it up in a hat and not deal with it for a while.

No Soda Pop or Candy. Well this one will stand because we are supposed to be encouraging healthy diet choices. At the same time, I drink like 4 cups of coffee a day and our school lunch is basically a giant blob of prefabricated and processed food. What could wash that down better than a frosty cold soda pop anyway? We shouldn't be banning pop, we should be increasing Physical Education demands instead of phasing them out.

WELL I hope the rules of life aren't getting you down, the new readers choice poll is open.

Have a good week!