Really Moving To Our New School Building

This Friday marks the last day for us at Clinton Street. I know you’ve heard things like this before, but this time it’s really, really happening.

Some of you, who’ve been at Clinton for 2+ years and teachers who’ve taught at this location for many years, are going to miss this well-worn, old building. To be sure, it has a unique collection of creaks, groans, pops and hums. There are the drafty windows, the crowded, noisy halls and the two facilities on opposite sides of the street that make our school at Clinton Street one of a kind. 

I don’t think I’ll be missing those things myself, but perhaps some of you will.

Of course, McAuliffe Charter School is much more than the building we are housed in. McAuliffe is an intricate blend of different people, each adding his or her own contribution to the symphony that is our school. 

But, change happens and when we begin the new year, we’ll be in our new building.

What will you miss?

What should we do in our new location to make it a “home” for us? 

This is an opportunity to reboot the school year and make changes to your lifestyle as a student. Do you have changes you’d like to make?

What’s In The Bag?

I almost got wiped out by a backpack this week.

I was walking down the hall and a student turned suddenly and her enormous backpack swung around and knocked into my side, sending me reeling toward another student. I thought I was going to accidentally hip-check the other student into a computer cart but I was able to regain my balance at the last moment.

“What the heck is in that bag?” I wondered as I walked away rubbing my side.

I started noticing how huge so many of the backpacks are that I see every day. I see 75-pound students lugging around 50-pound bags.

Is this part of some physical fitness program that I’m not aware of?  Are our scholars prepping for the Olympic weightlifting trials? 

All I know is that it’s a good thing we don’t have textbooks at McAuliffe, otherwise each of these kids would be pushing a wheelbarrow full of books, notebooks, folders, binders, and, of course, all my missing pencils.

Ahhhhhh, Yes; The Pencils

I thought I had this figured out but I guess i was wrong. Last year, my students went through about 100 pencils in the first five months of school (See my January 16, 2014 post). I suspected they were using them as building supplies.

This year is no different. At least one person in every single class needs a pencil. Talk about being prepared for class. I mean, think about it, if you’re a student here’s a list of what you need in every single class:

1. Pencil
2. Piece of paper

It’s like a carpenter showing up at a construction site, “Hey man can I borrow a hammer?”

I don’t get it, unless it is the first block of the day, you just came from a class. Didn't you have a  pencil in that class? Did you lose it walking across the hallway?  If that's true, why isn’t the hallway littered with pencils?

I thought I had it figured out this year. Instead of providing full-sized pencils with erasers, pencils that students might be tempted to keep, I ordered a box of 100 mini-golf pencils. They’re four inches long and have no eraser. No one wants to use, never mind keep, these pencils and yet, they are almost gone and it’s not even Christmas.

I have no idea what happens to pencils in a school but I am beginning to suspect there may be a room chock full of pencils somewhere in the basement. 

Has anyone checked, is our heating system fueled by pencils?