American Education Week
Friday:In commemoration of American Education Week, District 62 salutes our school and district administrators:
School administrators are key influentials that work at the front lines of educational enterprise. They are among the first to know when things are going well and often the first to “hit the potholes.”
Effective school research speaks to the importance of good school administrators. In fact, it is common knowledge that you can’t have a good school district without good administrators in our schools and key areas of school administration.
Successful administrators know how to bring people together and mobilize resources for programs, which are in the best interest of young people. There can be little doubt that the effectiveness of school-community relations is usually dependent on the tone set by our administrative team.
Thank you for working together for our children.
Thursday: In commemoration of American Education Week and School Board Members Day in Illinois, District 62 salutes our Board of Education:
School board members are ordinary people who have an extraordinary dedication to our public schools. It is time we thanked them for their untiring efforts. Too often we forget about the personal sacrifices school board members routinely make.
We forget about the important role school board members play in assuring local control over our public schools, control that is in the hands of people we know … people who are our neighbors.
We forget that, in the tradition of a representative democracy, school board members are the community’s key connection to influencing how our public schools are governed.
Yet too often we are too quick to criticize school board members without really knowing all the details that went into any given decision.
This is a time to show our appreciation and to begin to better
understand how school board members work together to provide leadership for our schools.
The school board works closely with parents, education professionals and other community members to create the educational vision we want for our students. It then formulates goals, defines results and sets the course for an adequate and equitable educational program for all students.
The school board is accountable to the public. It is responsible for assuring the public the money allocated to the public schools is providing a good return on their investment.
The school board is also a strong advocate for public schools and is responsible for communicating the needs of the school district to the public and the public’s expectations to the district.
Please join us in saluting the men and women who provide grassroots governance of public schools.
Thank you for working together for our children.
Wednesday: In commemoration of American Education Week, District 62 salutes our Educational Support Staff:
When people want school information, they say they call “the school.” What they really mean is that they call the school secretary, health and/or office clerk. To many, secretaries and clerks are “the school.”
School secretaries and clerks are among the most credible school employees. Their high regard is easy to understand. The school secretary/clerk generally lives in the community and has daily contact with students, teachers, and members of key external audiences such as parents, business people, those without school-age children, and others.
They are the building’s hello and good-bye person. They typically greet school visitors and bid them farewell. And, they are the voices of schools – the one that answers the phone and says, “Thank you for calling.”
Secretaries and clerks set the tone in the office, ease parental concerns, soothe critics, help students, and –sometimes- tend to cuts and bruises. No wonder people think of them as “the school.”
In South America “La Caminata” is often used to describe a tour of the neighborhood by two of the most important people in the school – the principal (the person who runs the school) and the custodian (the person who takes care of the school).
The idea is a good one. It allows two people with extremely high credibility to tell the school story. It works in Des Plaines, too.
To be sure, custodian/maintenance work is more varied and complex. Today, “keeping the boiler fired” has gone the way of steam locomotives. You must now understand a host of things, including safety codes, federal regulations, basic maintenance, and the chemistry of waxes. You also function as a public relations agent for your school.
One of the most visible parts of your job is keeping the school “dressed for success.” The first impressions people have about a school are usually determined by how the school looks. In fact, the school’s exterior often becomes the basis for long-term perceptions of what is happening on its interior. For many people, a well-maintained building symbolizes quality people operating a quality educational program.
While caring for the school and providing a safe and secure learning environment are important responsibilities, they’re only a part of your job. You help make educational programs work. By caring for the classrooms and the people in them, custodians and maintenance professionals enhance the staff’s capacity to provide quality educational programming.
Every successful school has effective custodians and maintenance staff. And, while we can’t see everything you do, it’s easy to spot schools that don’t have good custodians.
Thank you for working together for our children.
Tuesday: In commeration of American Education Week and Educators Day, District 62 salutes our certified staff:
Educators know the unexplainable excitement when a bell rings to start teaching; and the amazing joy of welcoming a child to class.
Educators know chalk dust on their pants, gum on their shoes, paper cuts on their fingers and ink stains on their front right pocket.
Veteran teachers know how to teach in the dark, in construction zones, in closets, and in fear. They know death, violence, inexplicable anger aimed at them for a parent’s failure, and how to eat in 10 minutes with one eye.
They know kids who work harder to just get on a bus each morning than some kids do to make straight A’s. They know kids who sleep in cars, on the floor, in a different house each week, in the back room at a fast food restaurant, and in class.
Teachers know the alive sound of a full hallway of laughing kids and the splendid silence of an entire classroom of students reading a great book.
They know questions to make a seasoned detective blush. “Did you have toilets when you were young?” “Did you ever smoke dope?” “Is that ketchup on your tie?” “Do we really have to do this?” and, the exasperating, “Is this for a grade?”
Teachers know how to diagnose illness, react to multiple emergencies, fix Spiderman’s broken arm, counsel love-sickness, duck and roll, and clean-up anything. They know when to hold ‘em and when to scold ‘em.
Teachers know what it is like to make a difference, to touch the future; to do important, worthy work; and they know they cannot care too much, give too much, or work too hard.
Teacher know the joy of driving the oldest car in the parking lot, getting a slightly used set of dictionaries, receiving notes with their name misspelled, and hearing their students talk about vacations they may never take.
Teachers know the joy of a needy hug, being led by the hand to see a picture, the power of “You can do it” and the gratification of a child bragging on himself to his parents.
Teachers are negotiators, motivators, referees, event planners, ministers, lawyers, set designers, cooks, psychiatrists, stain specialists, odor supervisors, critics, academics, and cheerleaders.
Teachers know the pain and joy of the last day of school; the names of their kids now in Iraq or Afghanistan; the hurtful snub at parties when they say they teach; and the vague, negative innuendo of an old friend asking, “Do you still teach?”
Teachers know that being with the kids, getting to teach, and feeling proud of what they do is something only they can understand.
We all need to remember what teachers know.
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