Leadership and Other Stuff

Where did my bloglines go? All my feeds are gone!!! Argh, I sure hope it's a glitch and they return soon.

School was irritating today. My kids are all on crack! Well, maybe only a few of them are but they all act like it. Finally, in 6th period, the kids were talking so much I told them they could do whatever they wanted, I was done until it got quiet. I didn't yell or get irritated. I sat down. I graded work. I ignored them.  And I set my stop watch. It took about 7 minutes for EVERYONE to be totally silent. It was quiet before 7 minutes, but I was at the "I'm going to make a point" stage. Then I gave them my all too famous talk about getting their shit together and respect. We got stuff done and all I can say is Thank G-d tomorrow is Friday. Ok, it wasn't totally their fault, I am PMS.

After work I went to a meeting where, for the first time since I've been there (just under 2 years), my leadership skills seemed to impress some people who matter. My school is huge: 4800 students, 200 teachers, 42 teachers in the English department alone. Basically my school is moving into Small Learning Communities (SLC) and we were discussing equity amongst the new communities our incoming 9th graders will go to. They all got 4 choices and were able to rank their most to least favorite. We tried to balance all the communities so that all were demographically equitable. In the end, it was a mess and there was a meeting to discuss how we could manage it. Proudly, I can say, my solution is the one the head counselor suddenly was impressed with. It was the result of a group of us doing group brainstorming. Needless to say, my leadership skills did come through and well, I think they're trying to get me to head up a SLC which scares the shit out of me while flattering me all the same. We'll see what happens and if I even want the responsibility. It's huge really and it's a great feeling that some people are showing confidence, but scary all the same.