Grab Bag

I am starting to wonder if there are ever any easy schools. No matter how exciting the atmosphere, how passionate the principal, how engaging and approachable the teachers, how enthusiastic and positive the students, there is always a problem. Maybe the problem is a contact person who never returns calls. Maybe there are teachers who yell. Maybe the students punch each other or don't love drama. But there is always something that gets in the way of a successful residency.

I'm a little jaded about the problems facing the public school system, but I'm also wondering if there are possibly things that I can do to help troubleshoot potential problems. Things I have been trying:

• Aggressively pursuing open communication with teachers and principals
• Consistently enforcing behavior expectations with students at the beginning of EVERY session
• Sending out check-in emails and feedback/assessment requests
  
• Keeping accurate records and typed lesson plans and making sure my director has these as well

But these well-meaning strategies have not helped me in the last week as I've dealt with temper tantrums, yelling teachers, and miscommunication about performance schedules. So, here are my goals for tomorrow:

• One on one conversations with ALL teachers and administrators to check in about residency progress
• Preparation for the performance regardless that we don't actually have one scheduled
• Confirmation of all schedules, sharings, and goals for the rest of the residency
• Loving up the kids, even the ones that are yelling
  

Will it happen? No one knows.