oops!

A word about mistakes. You will make them. Everybody makes them. If it happened, it happened. Let's go on. It's OK to make mistakes. That’s the way we learn. Blah, blah, blah. Yes, lots of mistakes happen when you are learning. We tell our students these little sayings and probably really mean them! I, for one, always HAVE to make the mistakes myself, then I learn...heaven forbid I learn from someone else's mistakes. Maybe you are different from me. Let's hope so! By the way, none of these mistakes could have been avoided by listening to my professors in college courses.

I've put the wrong page number on the chalkboard/whiteboard/Smartboard before. Kids will point this out to you and laugh. They love it when the teacher makes a mistake.

I've been late picking up my students from pe/art/music/recess/lunch/library and so on. Hey! You get busy chatting working with your co-workers sometimes!

I've forgotten to copy enough color pages or worksheets differentiated, researched, and planned "activities" many times and had to send a kid to the miffed nice secretary in the office to make a few more.

I've left Christmas decorations up on the bulletin board until Easter, and NO ONE noticed! So glad the bulletin board police didn't visit my room that year...

I've left my computer, printer, refrigerator, clock and fish tank turned on over Spring Break. I did get a note from Captain Kilowatt for that one.

I forgot that I taped that Little House on the Prairie Christmas video over another movie that was rated "R"...ummm...I think you know what happened when the Little House story was over!

I may have infringed on others' copyrights several times. Hey, I was at this for 18 years, before anyone ever told me you weren't supposed to copy entire books!

I hope you learn from my mistakes (and believe me, these are but a few):

PUT the wrong page number on the board and see if the kids are paying attention! Tell them – it’s okay to make mistakes!

Apologize to the teacher from whom you are picking up your students – they’ll forgive you. They know what it is like to not have enough time to chat work with your peers.

Be sure you make enough copies of materials your students are going to use. If you forget, make sure you have sucked up enough to the secretary so she won’t be miffed at you for asking for special favors. (See previous blog entry regarding the school secretary.)

Really!? Just check your bulletin boards once a month and if you accidentally have apples still on the calendar in December, just tell the bulletin board police the teacher across the hall that you MEANT to do that!

Electricity is expensive. TURN OFF stuff you aren’t using, silly! I leave reminders for myself about this all the time. It helps if you are the one paying for it.

For goodness sake! PREVIEW the whole movie if you are using taped-over versions on VHS or DVD. (Worse “movie boo boos” have happened to my co-workers – think home videos.)

Copyright issues are important my friends. Please be aware of “fair use policies” and follow them. If you don’t know them, ask your school’s librarian or Google it!

School Secretary

Before I was a teacher, I was a legal secretary for ten years. I've worked at 6 different schools over 20 years, so I'm familiar with the workings of an office and how to show respect to the person at the front desk - the school secretary. This is a link to an example of the types of activities school secretaries perform: http://bit.ly/igwwsV.

Here are my top 5 pointers on how to treat the secretary:

1. Kiss their feet (figuratively, please). These precious people keep the school running. When they are absent, the school almost falls apart! Seriously, I mean it, suck up to these people. You NEED them.

2. Stay out of the office the first and last weeks of school. They are working on projects during these times and they can't be interrupted. Do not ask for your class list - you will get it when it is ready.

3. Poor planning on your part does not make something an emergency on their part.

4. Don't forget them on holidays, their birthday, and especially on Administrative Professional's Day (used to be Secretary's Day) in April each year. They don't need more note pads, pens, etc. They want cool stuff like gift cards and money, just like you do!

5. They are not YOUR secretary. They belong to the students, teachers, principals and school community. I mistakenly "teased" one secretary about being my secretary and was taken aback at her unfortunate feelings regarding my comment.

Just remember, they are vital to you, your school and especially the students. Give them the respect they deserve, for they surely earn it.