Internship

I have been using the USDA food pyramid lately to eat better. I've not been using the menu planner religiously, but it seems keeping the principals in mind have worked well and I lost two pounds! Yay!

So, I have been interning in the front office this past week. It's very eye-opening. I realized that students do exceedingly stupid things (like refusing to give up their mp3 players even in the face of suspension) and also that teachers contribute to some discipline issues as much as the students. I have come to realize that I am a big proponent of natural consequences. If a student decides not to do his work, but is not disrupting others, then it's their choice and the natural consequence is you get a zero on the assignment and your grade lowers. If this becomes a chronic problem, you talk to the student privately, you call parents and talk to case managers and guidance counselors. Some teachers in my school, however, think that refusing to do work is something to actually punish a student for with lunch detention, SRC or suspension. Now disrupting class and others while not doing your work is definately a discipline issues, but just not doing your work? Not a discipline issue. Two students tied up my mentor for most of a class period with this issue.

I also learned that special education is huge. I went to a meeting for a SPED student who had been in a fight and then helped problems solve for another student who is soon to be labeled SPED. Special Education is no joke - principals lose their jobs over not handling it correctly so I'm trying to learn as much as I can so when I become a principal, I don't end up as a casualty of SPED law.