Paul's Infrequently Updated Blog

Today was another “day” at Gering High School, most specifically today was County Government Day.  This day was a little different from Senior Service Day last week as it did not involve the entire school. In fact, it involved just 26 juniors and myself.

Every year, Scottsbluff County organizes their County Government Day. Most of the school districts within Scottsbluff and Banner Counties send either junior or senior students to this event. The number of students that can go is limited to 26 so we pick which students get to go.

This year, I got to organize this event, which was pretty straight forward. I just had to decide who was going to go, what County Government departments  they were going to represent, and I insisted that students dress appropriately for the event. We then walked down to the County Government Building (its only about a 5-10 minute walk from the school) and the students went into a room upstairs to be introduced to the day’s events. After that, students were broken up into groups to learn about the areas of county government to which they had been assigned, such as District Attorney, Sheriff, County Commissioners, and so on.

While the students were in their groups, we teachers got to go to McDonald’s to chat and drink coffee, which was not a bad way to spend my morning. I got to meet Social Studies teachers from around the area and we had some interesting conversations.

At lunch time, we got to have lunch in a local church. We heard a few speeches and got to see how to properly fold an American flag. After lunch, students got to see some demonstrations by local law enforcement and then a  mock trial was held. The students were asked their opinions on the trial and whether a conviction based on what they had observed would have stood up in court. I was pleased to see that most students thought the case in question would be thrown out because it was based on an illegal search.

Once the day was over, we walked back to school, but I let the students have some time play on the swings, at the park. We got back to school just in time for the bell to ring. Overall, it was a pretty good day. I got to get out of the classroom and spend part of my day with other teachers. I do hope I get the chance to do this again next year. I am pretty sure that I will.

Today was Senior Service Day at the high school. I always like this day. While the sophomores spend most of their day testing and juniors both test and have to sit through a presentation, the seniors get to go out around the Gering/Scottsbluff area to do some community service for various organizations around town.

This year was actually my first year with the seniors. The last two years I had to spend at the Freshmen Academy with the 9th graders who have to take their Terra Nova tests on Senior Service Day. This year, I was picked to supervise a group of seniors as they spent part of their day helping out at the Panhandle Humane Society.  In total I had about a dozen seniors who were divided up into groups once the got to the Humane Society. Each group spent a little time doing different tasks, such as working with the cats, cleaning parts of the building, and working and playing with the dogs.

Although we were only there a few hours, it provided some insight into what the Humane Society does and just how much work is involved running a community organization. For me, the big plus was that, while I was there, I got to see Cinders. She is doing pretty good, but the healing is very slow. I think it may be after the end of the school year before we are allowed to take her home. I think she appreciated the fact that she got a lot of attention today.

After senior service was completed, the seniors returned to the high school for their senior picnic and then there were games where the students won prizes. It was organized so that everyone won at least one prize and some of the prizes were pretty good, such as flat screen televisions, ipods, and even a microwave oven.

At least for the seniors, it was a day away from the academic grind and for them a chance to hang out with people who they might not see again after they graduate next month. Unfortunately, there is some talk of not having senior service in the future, which would be sad as I think the students actually get something worthwhile out of this day.

Today I am sitting at home not at school, resting. Why am I not at school? Because yesterday I got into a car accident and wrecked my car. I am pretty sure it has been totaled, but I will have to wait for the insurance company to assess the damage before I can be sure.

Basically, I was pulling out of the McDonald’s onto 10th Street in Gering when I got hit by another car on the driver’s side of my vehicle. The sun had just risen and the glare was pretty bad and, even though I looked and then looked again, I did not see the other car. Both myself and the driver of the other vehicle had to be taken to the hospital and I have been told to take a week off work to recover. Fortunately, there were no major injuries, although I did suffer a shoulder injury and some whiplash.

I am pretty sure I will make a full recovery, but I am pretty bummed about the whole thing. I really liked my little car and don’t know when I can get a new one. I also think it will be months before the insurance is all sorted out and I will not get another car until that is all sorted out and paid off.

Today marked the end of  of the third quarter and tomorrow is a Work Day for the teachers. Again, I have made sure that my grades are complete so all I will have to do tomorrow is get them verified and then I am done. This weekend will also be the start of our Spring Break.

For some reason, Gering Public Schools does not combine Spring Break with Easter. As a result, we get two long weekends. This year, one is in March while the second will be in April. I am afraid I find this a little bizarre to say the least. Almost every other school district gives their students (and staff) a full week in either March or April (depending when Easter falls) for Spring Break. This gives people the opportunity to go on vacation or just stay home to get ready for the last part of the school year.

The problem I see with dividing the time off like they do at Gering is that a lot of kids get pulled out of school anyway, thus missing up to four days of school. The argument has been made that giving them a whole week in the Spring would allow them to forget what they have spent most of the year learning. I don’t buy this argument. If that was so, then you can make a much stronger case for getting rid of the long summer vacation (as some people do). I don’t think taking a whole week in March or April will make much, if any, difference to how much learning the kids retain.

Once again, it does not really matter what I think. Each and every year, teachers are asked what they think of the next year’s school calendar and each and every year our suggestions and ideas are ignored.

On Wednesday, there was a meeting for Probationary Teachers that was organized by our Union, the Gering Educators Association. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the rights of non-tenured teachers. The meeting was held at a local pizza place so I got the opportunity to eat free pizza and learn more about my rights and responsibilities as a teacher.

When I got there, I found there I found that the turn out was pretty low. We had another snowstorm on the day of the meeting  and the roads are still pretty bad. In the end, only three other teachers turned up. I was still a little  surprised because, despite the conditions, I thought more people would show. I found the meeting very informative and I got the business card of the regional union rep for the Nebraska Education Association or NEA, the state union to which our local union is affiliated. So if I have any serious problems in the future I know who I can contact.

Also, we had another faculty meeting on Wednesday. Not surprisingly, the ESU #13 Winter Conference workshops came up. I could hardly believe it when one of my fellow teachers said how great the “Energizer” was with his presentation. When she started talk about the great things she had learned that she would use in the classroom, I was started to wonder if I had even been in the same workshop. I still say that workshop was dreadful and that the presenter only wanted to sell us his products.