Communicating with your staff

I try to avoid group emails except for things like "I'll be out of the office today" or "Please tell me about any and all upcoming field trips". For the things that you mentioned, once I've asked nicely a few times, I have the principal address it at the next staff meeting. I find that coming from the principal means the odds are better that they may actually listen!

I'll usually send group emails to remind them about stuff but I'm finding that teachers will do what they want. I'm coming into this late - started less than a month ago - and they were used to doing whatever they wanted. I very rarely get last names on passes and I LOVE LOVE LOVE when they put "?" for the reason why they're sending a student down to me. I'm talking 6th graders - not my little ones. I don't have time to play games with the kids. Honestly if a 12yo can't verbalize why they need to see me then they can stay in the class. It's usually because they just want to get out of class - nothing major and usually at the end of the day. Boo! Sorry to vent on your post.

I work with this woman at the hospital who I constantly clean up her day when I follow her. Not figuratively, literally, she leaves med packages from the whole day at the computers, leaves syringe wrappers and opened alcohol preps strewn across the med room. Her mantra is "I'm busy". There are selfish people everywhere and they multiply, these people don't consider anyone else and no matter how many emails you send, they won't change. I confronted my coworker and told her that it was simply rude to expect others to clean up after her, she didn't change.

I don't group email very often. Housekeeping things like "I will be leaving early" or my every other month "please check your classroom refrigerators for my icepacks". But if its a reminder about meds, I pick out the teachers involved. We don't do passes, they just come willy nilly.

I do group e-mail reminders such as please call me before sending kids, or make sure they have a pass, or I don't have cough drops. Anything that's student specific I will pick the teachers specifically to e-mail.

I don't group email very often. Housekeeping things like "I will be leaving early" or my every other month "please check your classroom refrigerators for my icepacks". But if its a reminder about meds, I pick out the teachers involved. We don't do passes, they just come willy nilly.

No passes? That would drive me insane. Half of our Jr. High kids would spend the time walking the campus and checking out other classes....especially PE.

No passes? That would drive me insane. Half of our Jr. High kids would spend the time walking the campus and checking out other classes....especially PE.

To clarify - there are no "nurse" passes. Jr/High school students have to carry their planner with them if they are in the halls during class time to show that they are headed somewhere. But there is no piece of paper that accompanies kids to my office.

Oh, ok. Ours used to have planners too, they stopped that last year, so now the teachers just write the date and time on a piece of scrap paper. We have no actual "nurse passes" either. We just need to know what time they left class!

I do mass emails because my teachers are much better about reading those than anything I put in their mailbox. If I start getting several kids without proper passes I send out a reminder. After that if I get a student without a pass or phone call I send them back without seeing them until they get one. If I get a pass without a last name and I can't understand the kid I call the teacher and ask. Do you have class lists of names? That helps me some. I agree getting your principal to back you helps but ultimately if you let the teachers walk all over you they will. When I first took this school I'm at now no one used passes because the former nurse didn't put her foot down. I knew being new now was the perfect time to make changes. I sent so many kids back for a pass and would sweetly tell the teacher later, they didn't have a pass so I thought there was no way you had sent them. They'd usually say they forgot and I would say that's the only way I can tell for sure. It worked. Good luck!

We just started nurse passes, generic lanyards with, I love it, the sexist nurse picture on it. Makes me smile every time. All it really says is the teacher sent them and is aware they are out of class.

At my old school I had made up passes to send kids back to class with boxes that I would check indicating

__no fever

__no breakfast

__called home

__rested