A Day in the Life

4/27/07 Elementary Principal

6:28 am Meet with other principals for prayer and support at the local coffee shop
7:45 am Arrive at school
7:48 am Turn on Computer and open email
8:03 am Secretary informs me we're 3 subs short
8:14 am Custodian informs me she's ready for the Earthquake and Fire Drill scheduled for 9:00 am
8:17 am Assessment Coordinator informs me she ready for 21 WASL make tests
8:18 am Develop plan to cover classrooms without sub
8:19 am Admin Intern covers  6th grade class so teacher can attend needed training
8:20 am Counselor covers other 6th grade class so teacher can attend same training
8:25 am Neighboring 3rd grade teacher doubles up her class and takes the first shift of coverage for her 3rd grade colleague out ill
8:28 am School Psychologist wants to debrief last night's IEP meeting and upcoming Manifestation Determination meeting, I have her talk to my secretary to schedule time next week
8:29 am Greet kids arriving to school walkers and by bus
8:33 am Make morning announcements Birthdays, Ecology Club Sign up, Track Team Meeting
8:40 am Call Special Services to determine status of a new student for Monday with special needs
8:45 am Legal Counsel is contacted regarding placement of new student with special needs
8:47 am Gave directions to maintenance department regarding work on the playground with heavy equipment
8:50 am Returned email from upset parent that demanded immediate attention regarding an ongoing complaint toward her child's teacher and a student in that class
8:53 am Prepared for Emergency Earthquake Drill, made calls to fire department and facilities to warn them of the drill
9:00 am Earthquake Drill all students take cover and teachers discuss the procedures for the real thing
9:04 am Earthquake Drill is followed by a mandatory monthly fire drill.  All students exit the building and we follow our plan for accountability
9:10 am Building all clear including preschool and all students accounted for in under 6 minutes
9:12 am All 583 students reenter the building and return to the business of learning
9:15 am I reassign a paraeducator to work in the 3rd grade class with the teachers that will be covering for the sub shortage
9:17 am Reading specialist takes the second shift of coverage for the 3rd grade teacher out ill
9:18 am State Testing WASL makeups began
9:20 am Made 5 phone calls to parents of 6th graders who have said they don't want their child to attend our 4 day overnight 6th grade outdoor education camp
9:32 am Met with student on in-house suspension for chronic misbehavior
9:45 am Met with EBD student in alternate placement for aggressive behavior which needed CPI restraint and escorting from the previous day
10:02 am Talked with teacher having problems with a student
10:10 am Met with Union Rep to discuss upcoming Bond planning strategies
10:15 am Called local hamburger joint to schedule our fund raising day where staff will be servers to raise money for Relay for Life
10:20 am Sub arrives for the 3rd grade classroom without sub and relieves the Reading Specialist
10:30 am Kids of all ages continue to visit the HOSTs room to get free books donated by Comcast
10:45 am Create and send emails to Leadership team members to encourage recruiting for summer professional development activities
11:00 am Talked to 6th grade teacher that is being involuntarily transferred to another school next year because of growth
11:15 am Checked on recess and the complaint of a smell from the heavy equipment working on our field, workers report the use of pig fuel as the unavoidable cause
11:30 am Checked on Lunch lines and I pick up a school lunch of turkey, gravy with mashed potatoes for myself
11:35 am Ate lunch with my playground supervisors and debrief about their thoughts regarding last night's deescalation training
12:01 pm Prepare staff meeting agenda for next Tuesday's staff meeting
12:20 pm Begin Preparation for Weekly on line blog Bulletin, Almost Monday to be completed over the weekend
12:45 pm Finalized preparation for next Wednesday's weekly early dismissal for staff development.  Our guest speaker will discuss the new support model for servicing IEP's with behavior elements such as FBAs and BIPs
1:00 pm Wrote a song to be performed at tonight's District PTA Golden Acorn celebration
1:15 pm Visited Kindergarten classrooms
1:30 pm Followed up on meeting with parent upset with our Anti-Idling campaign in partnership with the Health Department, he referred to it as "Al Gore crap"
2:00 pm Met with upset 1st grade parent that wanted a new teacher because her daughter didn't like school however she hadn't shared her concerns with the teacher yet, so we scheduled a followup meeting with all parties
2:45 pm Walked out to buses with students for dismissal
3:00 pm Met with 2 fathers that work for Comcast about setting up our closed circuit television station for broadcasting video announcements.  I shared my vision, gave them a tour of the facility and we set up a project wiki to begin our work
4:00 pm Met with first grade teacher to discuss her concern about class size equity and the contract
4:15 pm Started reading and responding to my daily 100 plus work related emails
5:00 pm Headed to the High School for this evening's event
5:30 pm Attended the District PTA Golden Acorn Event, as a 1999 recipient I was selected as the emcee for the tonight's auction and I also performed my recently written song (this morning) with the Superintendent and his assistant.  The song was sung to the tune of Row Row Row your Boat and was intended to promote voting for the upcoming school bond measure
8:30 pm Head home
9:00 pm Arrive home
9:05 pm Begin this blog post
10:57 pm Edit this blog post

11:24 pm Posted

11:25 pm Bedtime

A typical day...what about you?

Comments

[Neil A. Rochelle]

Whew! I'm tired now!! Who says administrators are overpaid????? You need to take 5 minutes for yourself just to regroup and clear your mind. You'll find you are as efficient and you are busy. I'm one that has lived on autopilot as you describe. I'm working hard to be truly attentive and focus. Can't do that when the merry-go-round never stops. Just 5 minutes!!
Keep up the great work but PLEASE.....don't burn yourself out.

[Scott Elias]

Outstanding! I'll have to do this one day (when I can find the time). I think it would be insightful to compare what was actually scheduled with what was actually done.