It's been a few weeks since I posted.  I can't wrestle myself away from some element of work at RGE or USF to find the time to write down my thoughts though I live in constant reflection.  I am so blessed and fortunate to have the mentor that I do.  We constantly are reflective as a team.  We have regular discussions on incidents, challenges, struggles, and how we could have better handled something.  My mentor is a gift to me.  She gives me enough freedom to make decisions and enough support to feel as though I'm making good decisions.  She always gives me the option of not handling a situation if it is something that I find uncomfortable and she is tremendous by front-loading me with suggestions in how to best approach a situation.

Overall, many things are going well.  The thing I am most concerned with is Discipline.  The students are not respectful of the authority of the adults on campus.  There is no apparent mutual respect between staff and students. I feel as though we are in crisis.  The Behavioral Specialist has established procedures to best handle discipline, but the staff seems to use her as a crutch to handling discipline.  The staff is asking that students be removed from their classes for minor infractions-things I would have never called for support for.  And in fact, I have never ever in my life as a teacher called for administration to remove a student from my classroom.   I honestly can't fathom it and it happens about 4-6 times per day at this school.  Now don't get me wrong.,  I love this school.  It has become a passion of mine.  The students and staff are amazing.  They all just lack relationships, empowerment to make decisions and enforce discipline.  We have to get this under wraps.  I am exhausted at the end of every day just from handling discipline issues. We have to find a way to empower these teachers with a skill set to better manage their students and we have to foster relationships that are founded on mutual respect.  I have had to restrain far too many students.

We are rolling out our Book Study on Cultural Sensitivity.  I have rolled out a plan for the implementation of the PLC with timelines and ideas.  Not every teacher is excited about participating and some are flat out refusing.  How do I/we encourage the very teachers that have the greatest need to participate?