Snippets of Middle School Life, Part CMXXIIIIV

I was in the school office during my prep period waiting for a secretary to get off the phone so I could ask about the attendance of one of my students who seems to be forgetting school has resumed since the Christmas holiday. Anyhow, after getting off the phone after a series of "humms" "ok's" and a final, "I'll try to get someone over there", she looked up at me and said, "Just a minute Mr. Polski."
She then got on one of the school walkie-talkies trying to find a custodian to go over to Teacher W's classroom to clean up some "doggie poop" that some student tracked into Teacher W's classroom.


I arrived at school the other day to find an angry parent in the office heatedly discussing something with one of our front office secretaries. From what I hear in entering and exiting the office, was that he was upset with one of the after school sports coaches. His complaint was that coaches should speak English, not talk to the team in Spanish and expect Spanish-comprehending students to translate what was said into English for the non-Spanish comprehending students on the team. The secretary he was engaging in this diatribe is a veteran of many administrators and a parent cannot tell her something she hasn't heard before. She just calmly listened to him and tried to tell him that she personally did not disagree with him, but SHE was not the person he needed to talk to about this issue. As often is the case, there did not seem to be any available administrator. Personally, I agree with him; any adult working around children should be able to clearly and quickly be able to communicate
with those children.
I found out later this is the same parent who, when I attempted to keep his child after school to make up missing work, threatened me with physical violence several times while I tried to talk to him on the phone Later, he showed up at school and ranted at the principal and demanded his child be removed from Mr. Polski's class due to my unreasonable learning expectations and "unreasonable" demands. I just wonder how much patience and endurance this man's child has with living with such a man.....

So, what happens at YOUR school ? Share it with us.

Thanks for reading my blog.