The Night Jen Said No-- Part 1

Otherwise known as...An Evening to Remember

I started back at work-- full time (and then some)-- two weeks ago today.  Opening is an incredibly hectic time for the office staff, and the counseling office in particular.  We check each and every student's schedule to ensure that each student is in the classes appropriate for his/her ability.  We check schedules to ensure that students who are in need of intensive reading or math as dictated by the spring FCAT scores are in those classes.  We check schedules to ensure students got electives that they actually chose.

We do all of these things.

We do all of these things, plus, we do our best to hold students and parents at bay as they clamor to learn their (or their child's) schedule... and then attempt to change that schedule when the schedule isn't to their liking.

Therein lies the rub.  If they only knew how hard the counseling staff was working to prevent such an occurrence.  Twelve hour days become the norm.  We spend our nights dreaming about schedules.  (I can't speak for my entire team, but I know that I do!)

We love what we do and our lives are committed to helping students get the classes they need to graduate.  We also spend a great deal of time getting kicked about and manipulated (that's folks in education in general, not just school counselors!) but we do what we do because-- and not to be cliche but it's true-- we care.  Sometimes I think we care more than the parents who give them the cell phones upon which they spend their life texting.  (And maybe that's why:  if their teenagers are texting they don't actually have to interact with them.  Yeah, I said it!) 

It is not my intention to throw myself or my colleagues a pity party but instead to set the stage for a tale of a most interesting Friday evening.  A night for which that I said no... and no... not to whatever kind of activity that the reader thinks I may have said no to.  An evening spent with colleagues cutting loose and actually being themselves rather than what is expected of them.  (Despite my attempts to shush, but we'll get to that later!)

In addition to checking schedules we are also giving them.  We make sure each and every newly enrolled student has a schedule for the first day of school, if they enrolled before the cutoff date, and for those that enroll after, we ensure that they have tentative schedules before we meet them at the new student orientation on the first day of school. 

It's a lot of work. 

Be assured that I am putting it mildly.

My Small Town High School is approximately 200 students over capacity.  Every class is full, or very nearly so.  I know in about a month, everything will be just as it should be, but ohhhhh, what a month!

Last week teachers returned, and our fearless administrator let us know that at the end of the week we were invited to a staff party at Irritated William's, a seafood restaurant on the shore of My Small Town.  This was the site of the date featured in The Date That Launched a Blog, which I think is one of the funniest-- if not most painful-- posts I've ever written.

I knew after everyone had worked so hard to prepare for the first day of school that we would be in for a night to remember.  I just wish I had known how memorable it would be. 

End of Part 1.  Click here for The Night Jen Said No-- Part 2.  :-)