Dec. 11

The presentations today provided a great deal of information in a variety of different topics. I enjoyed listening and learning about extra curricular evaluations, PLCs being implemented in a math department, improving culture in a school, evaluations using Danielson's criteria, and project based learning. I was very interested in listening to Lauri and Kelli talk about their dealing with the crisis at their HS. My first 5 years at my school I dealt with 4 student deaths..almost 1 each year. I found it helpful to know that in some aspects we dealt with our student's in the same way. It was a very emotional experience for my current principal since it was the first time he had to deal with a student dead. Unfortunately we do not have a good crisis plan set in place...who to call how to deal with situations, etc. I do believe administrators need to be the overall monitor but let the counselors do their job. Coming from a small school where a big part of our student body are related to at least one other person in our school, it can make for a very difficult situation. I also like Lauri's box of papers to deal with student death. It really helps to hear from the counselor b/c at times many of us teachers were dealing with each death differently and how we were grieving. As an administrator don't forget that your teachers can also be dealing with the loss of the student, especially when you are from a small school and know all students.