Today was a teacher inservice day; for those of you NOT in education, allow me: it's a day when all the teachers sit in big meetings and get additional training in something that their districts usually feel is vitally important, but that the teachers usually feel is a colossal waste of time and money.
This inservice day's topic was Using Data to Inform Instruction and Grading Practices in a Standards-Based Classroom. ( I KNOW! I was as blown away by it as you are!!) Anyway, again I was amused by observing that, not only are teachers the toughest crowd around, especially at 7:45 AM, but we also eventually begin exhibiting the classroom behaviors of our students.
Once the really boring stuff got underway, my buddy next to me hauled out her thank you notes from a recent bridal shower and got to work. Nearby, several men pulled out the Plain Dealer sports pages. Behind me, one woman started leafing through a Lands End catalog. The table behind me started chatting in earnest, sotto voce of course, about someone's haircut across the room. I was nudged a few times to pass a note. Many graded papers. Lest you should think me virtuous in any way, I started a long overdue letter to my friend in Orlando, doodled, chatted with my tablemates, and at one point went to hang out in the bathroom for awhile to see if anyone else was hanging out in the bathroom for awhile (no one was, darnit). I found out later that the really cool table of teachers, some young lions of the English, Social Studies, and Art departments had begun a comic book of sorts which I was privy to later.
None of these activities can take up an entire seminar, you understand. Pacing. That is the key.
Bad girl bathroom breaks should be scheduled henceforth for every three quarters hour. Imagine what could be accomplished with a posse in the wc. If challenging and appropriate questions for whichever speaker should not come about, a detailed schedule of coughing, pencil dropping, and cell phone ringing can be arranged at precise time intervals. Either way, said speaker would have to earn every cent of what is most certainly a ridiculous fee.
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