the staff battle

Everyone take a big breath with me now. Don't you feel better? I always like to take a big breath when I get home, especially on Friday's, knowthing that I survived another week and that 2 days of "relaxation" are in store. I say "relaxation" because often my weekends are just as busy and chaotic as the weekdays...but at least I can sleep in a tiny bit, if you call 7 sleeping in.

Anywho, I'm glad it's Friday and I'm happy to report that I'm all caught up on my grading. With the last week of the quarter next week, I feel very proud that I was able to catch up and now only have to add a few things in that we do next week.

We had two meetings after school today, which took us all the way to contract time (2:45) and then some. We got out of department meetings at 3 or so. I decided to force myself to stay so I could catch up on said grading and straighten my ever-messy desk. It just felt good to carry out a very light teacher bag to my car today...for once I didn't bring anything home!

The latest drama with yearbook has unfolded this week. The kids are starting to put together pages and make decisions about what they want on the pages. There is a page, which after this year I might eliminate all together, called "Best Of." These are the really lame (I think) things like "Personality Plus," or "Cutest couple" (gag). The girl assigned this page this year, along with some of her friends, started making decisions about what categories they'd do this year, instead of the same old "Cutest Smile." I fully encouraged them to do something different and be creative.

On Wednesday they turned in a page mock-up of what they wanted the page to look like and what categories. Some of their ideas were clever and fun--Happy all Around. Some, on the other hand, I vetoed--Most Baggy Pants and Most Body Piercings. Ha. I asked them to eliminate those two as I thought it might cause an uproar with the administration and I thought that not every 9th grader would know who had the most body piercings. I though that the was the end of the troubles with Best Of, but I was so wrong.

Yesterday, these same girls decided to make posters promoting the voting for the categories. They decided to have all the 9th grade vote during advisory, so they made posters explaining the categories and telling when they'd vote. Halfway through the poster making, another group of students approached me. Their spokesperson asked me, "Did they get to just choose the categories themselves?" I explained the situation, saying yes because it's their page. Another one piped in, "Well, we think it'd be more fair if we all got a say in what the Best Of Categories were." I felt put-on-the-spot, so I said, "I'll think about it and we'll talk about it tomorrow during Staff Meeting." They agreed.

I told the poster makers to cease making posters until further notice. They, of course, through a fit because they are brats like that. I suddenly had all sides of my staff upset at me for my handeling of the situation.

I talked to a few teachers about my predicament, asked Ben his opinion, and finally made my decision to allow the girls assigned to the page to make the ultimate decision. My thinking was that if we'd vote on what to put on that page, it'd only make it "fair" to vote on everyone else's page (whether or not this was the best approach is still up for debate...)

Today in staff meeting, I explained my situation, getting glares and crusties from my really over reactive staff. I said that in general life isn't fair and in yearbook especially not everyone will agree on what we do, but ultimately I am the adviser and make the decisions I feel are best for the outcome of the book. I explained both sides of story and my feelings and concerns about each side. My "vote for this page, vote for all page" speech was quite eloquent, I wish someone would have taped it because it was an excellent example of a persuasive argument. Anyway, long story short, in the midst of my speech and seeing the reaction of the kids, I decided to have everyone give input and asked the girls in charge of the page to take into consideration what the other's had to say. They rolled their eyes and huffed a little, but wrote down the suggestions given.

I once again thought that the problem was solved, but then continued to have kids from both sides coming up to me saying it wasn't fair. I had the girls show me their revised categories, which included several suggestions from the opposing side, and have resolved to pronounce this situation "case-closed" on Monday.

On a somewhat positive note, the first issue of the newspaper was delivered today. Despite the fact that the kids choose orange paper, it looks pretty decent. We'll pass it out on Tuesday during advisory.

Happy weekend!