Day 17 — PD Day Fire Alarm Fun!!

A LONG, LONG staff meeting today, which started off with a nicely catered breakfast. Thank you Mr. Principal Man! The meeting seemed endless, and it wasn’t helped by the fire alarms going off in the middle of it. We all evacuated the building, and then were told by Mr. Principal Man to go back in. Then we were told by Ms. Veep to go back out. Much confusion ensued. This rigmarole added at least 30 minutes to our already long staff meeting.

When we were all assembled again in the library, a former parent, and personal trainer, came and did a workshop on doing exercises with our students. It’s the mandate that we do “DPA” (Daily Physical Activity) with our kids for 20 minutes a day, but that’s difficult in a classroom situation. She brought her assistant with her, a very fit enthusiastic young woman, who had us all up and dancing. Mr. Principal Man decided this would be the best time to get the camera, so he could post the pics on our school website, which is his pet project. The exercises that were recommended were generally good, but FitDude, our awesome Phys.Ed guy, brought up a couple of potential safety issues with some of them. The presenter seemed a bit miffed by these ideas, and seemed to think that we were being unruly (she didn’t say this, but her attitude said lots) but I think that FitDude made some good points. Safety first.

At noon, I had to leave, as I was on my way to another meeting at a different school. This was a meeting put on by the Deaf Ed. department with my board, and was to deal with assessments and IEPs. It was a good meeting and nice to see some colleagues that we don’t usually see. We talked about our dept. getting together socially more often, and providing opportunities for the kids to get together, as they’re pretty isolated. This Friday will be our D/HH picnic, which is always a hit with the kids, so that should be fun.