Who's On Second?

I know a school where if the meeting goes one minute beyond the time the teachers are to leave, they do!  They just get up and walk out.  I can't believe it.

At our school, we only have meetings about once a month.  It wasn't enough so we scheduled them for every 2 weeks.  They never last long unless there is a real problem.  We also have committees up the wazoo!  Those take time.  In the past, there was a teacher who would just bring up crap and argue and argue to hear her own voice I think.  She could make the meetings go on forever.  We hated her.  My principal is very cognizant of our time and wonderful about meetings.

I had a principal that always asked for questions at the end of the meeting, and the same teachers always raised their hands to ask about something that usually wasn't important.  I think emails might be better than staff meetings.  They could be more specific to the teachers involved.

I had a principal that always asked for questions at the end of the meeting, and the same teachers always raised their hands to ask about something that usually wasn't important.  I think emails might be better than staff meetings.  They could be more specific to the teachers involved.

I totally know what you mean...except in my school, I wouldn't exactly call them meetings.  Calling it a "meeting" implies that there will be dialogue- like a meeting of the minds.  At our school,  it's more like the principal talks AT us for about an hour.  So maybe they would be better named Monologues.  At best, it's more like an information session.  It would be nice to be asked what we think every once in a while.  

If you want to laugh about all these frustrations (and more!!) check out my blog at The Chalk Talks...I'm pretty new to this teacher lingo thing, but I like  it!!

Mimi

I agree with mimi and mystery teacher and betty. We have even had teachers get "talked to" for looking at another teacher in the staff meeting, if some new program is being dreaded.

Just once, I'd love to hear- "I know this is not what we would like, it may be bogus, but, we have to do it so- let's give it our best shot." Do all principals really BELIEVE that these programs will work? It seems so obvious that no one is listening to the classroom teachers.

Anyway, on a positive note, I think that I will just say the above dialogue to myself during staff meetings this year!

Our staff meetings occur once a month.  They are usually about 1 1/2 hours long, with union business at the end after the principal and VP leave.  The only difficulty is that a third to one quarter or so of teachers are missing (most due to coaching).  It would be nice to have everyone there, seeing as it's only one day a month!

I have been in staff meetings where the meeting has been stopped and teachers asked to stop talking, stop grading papers, stop doing whatever they are doing and pay attention.  It is really rude to be doing something else when you are supposed to be in a meeting.  Ours is not the "being talked at" kind of leadership.  Ours are participation.  However, I get tired of the talking (unless it is me) and wish I was grading papers.  Sometimes that is more important than what is being talked about.  We have had some really really rude teachers in our school (note the HAD) They talked out loud to each other while the principal was trying to get business done.

I know what you mean Mystery Teacher.  We have two distinct groups at school..those who listen during meetings, and those that talk, eat, grade papers and basically are blatantly not listening.  While our principal does get on his soapbox quite a bit, I still think that is insanely RUDE and that maybe we, as teachers, would get asked what we think from time to time if these people weren't holding us back by acting this way.  I just wish he would call them out....Good for your school for trimming the fat.