Life as a School Administrator in Haiti is not quite as glamorous as it may appear at first. Let me walk you through a typical day. When I first arrive, I clean the office. You wouldn't believe how much dust accumulates during the rainy season, I dread the dry season, it'll be even worse then. The secondary students are supposed to clean the whole school, but one day I watched one of them clean the window in the office and was appalled by how much water she dripped all over the place and now I won't let them near the office except to mop the floor. Next I run around doing errands for the teachers, "can you photocopy this for me? can you get me some paper? do you know where I can find some glue?" After that I have a morning meeting with all the teachers, we pray together and go over any anouncements for the day. Then it's outside for the raising of the flag, singing the national anthem and school devotions. Then I'm free to do a few administrative things like write letters to parents, discipline students, and work on unending paperwork. We have two recess breaks in which I assist with supervision. I love watching the kids play together, there is a group of little boys who run around chasing each other and giggling for the entire recess break, it's quite hilarious. When recess if over, I spend some more time on administrative stuff and then it's back outside supervising the students until it's time for them to go home. After school I usually chat with the teachers one on one with whatever issues they or I would like to talk about. Then I call it a day... I've been going to a gym most days after work to walk around the track and enjoy some sunshine and "fresh" air.
P.S. I can't get spellcheck to work so please forgive me for any spelling errors.
P.S.S. To respond to earlier comments...Khandaker before you get too jealous, Garner and Bunker are referring to the postcard I gave out with my blog address on it. Don't worry I'm not leaving you out of any postcard fun.
6 comments:
you're the small cheese? I don't get it.
Gwen
Randy's the BIG CHEESE!
Cheesy!!
I don't really understand. Wouldn't cleaning and washing windows be a skill that high school students could learn and perhaps improve at rather than banning them from the office for dripping water?
Also,...........why do teachers need spellcheck?
:)
The comments of Kim, Amy and Gwen show incredible insight and wisdom. I wonder where this come from ?
Dad
To respond to anonymous, we are kept quite busy teaching the students how to properly clean toilets, tables, floors and windows. It's a slow process and many things are ruined in the process. The things in the office are hard to replace and expensive (computers, printers, photocopiers etc) and I don't want to take the risk. As for spell check, well we all have our weaknesses and spelling is one of mine.
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