Human Voices Wake Us

Yesterday was the first day of school.  I was at home with my feverish four-year-old.  As I sat on the couch watching a foreign film from Netflix that we’d had for like 3 months, I realized that, for the first time in 13 years of being in education, I was missing the first day of school.  That feeling of walking into the building and seeing all the kids and feeling like you had just been there, done that.  Helping kids in the hall with no idea where to go, giving your spiel about rules and supplies, collapsing exhausted with no voice at the end of the day.  Wow.  Weird.  If I had gone into work, it would have been in the ad building.  No kids, just a computer.  I miss the first day of school.  I miss the excitement and chaos and return to bad lunches.  I’ve loved my new position, but I am looking forward to the day I will be able to get back on a campus with kids, problems to solve, and days that end voiceless.

My technology principal hero (other than my husband) is Greg Farr.  He’s started a task to create a paperless office.  Instead of handing teachers a giant notebook filled with information at the beginning of school, he will be handing them all a thumb drive loaded with information.  I love this idea for 3 reasons:  1.  no killing trees  2. teachers who are reluctant to use technology are forced to at least learn how to plug a thumb drive into a USB and click it open  3.  it’s cool.   So, in order to emulate this paperless approach, I decided to stop printing out agendas to take to meetings.  Instead I will put it on my Palm.  (I’m not sure if this is a technological revelation or not for most, but it is for me.)   I’m going to try to keep Mr. Farr’s paperless philosophy in mind as I work.  But I can’t quite give up my yellow legal pads, though.

I choreograph.  So far, several cheerleader routines, faculty pep rally routines, 3 musicals, and one convocation.  Today was convocation.  My district presented a retrospective of the decades since the first school opened.  Students from all 3 high schools showcased dances popular during each decade.  I was in charge of 80s & 90s.  I had the hardest time picking songs for the 80s.  I finally settled on the most iconic songs with the most iconic dances (I think):  Freakshow on the Dancefloor to highlight breakdancing, Footloose to highlight cruddy 80s dancing, and Thriller to highlight, well, Thriller.  (By the way, if you haven’t seen the wedding party do Thriller, check it out:  Wedding Thriller.)  For 90s, I picked Vogue, U Can’t Touch This, and Macarena.  (The late 90s was horrible for dancing, unless you count the tootsie roll.)  I had a great time, the performers were wonderful, and I think everyone enjoyed it.  Yea!   BTW- I love YouTube!

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