The organized mornings

The level of organisation in the staffroom at my school, whether you think it is utterly excessive or not, is somewhat impressive. I'll give you a taste of it, but I would be keen to hear back from teachers if you think this would work or not in your situation.

Although it is still early in the year (1st week), staff on average arrive at 7:45am and carry out their class preparation. At 8:20am, a bell sounds and everyone in the staffroom stands. Absolutely all teaching and non-teaching staff members are present in the room at this time of day. The Headmaster (or Principal) then greets the staff with an "おはようございます oyahou gozaimasu" and everyone responds. Wow! What a surprise for me to see that for the first time).

One of the staff members has the role of MC-ing the meetings. He started by asking the Headmaster if their were any pressing matters to pass on to the staff, which on this day related to a particular student who had been caught wearing make-up for the 4th time. All staff were given an A4 piece of paper explaining the infringement (wearing makeup) and her student record, and signed by the Headmaster. He also spoke to the staff and made it clear what the consequences are for this repeat offender - suspension for 3 days. At the conclusion of this special message, the MC asked other leaders of the school if there are any notices for the staff. They mainly consisted of a thanks for yesterday and a reminder about something on Friday afternoon. The MC then asked if there are any other staff members with notices (usually are) and then this part of the morning is formally finished with a "よろしくおねがいします yoroshiku onegai shimasu" (thanks for your effort for the rest of today).

But that is not all. The layout of our staff room is based on the year level we are Home Room Teachers for, or substitute in my case. So, the next part of the morning routine is the Year Level Head Teacher giving more specific information for our year level and to enquire whether there are any students of concern in any of our classes. There was one particularly interesting comment that he passed on today that I had never come across before. He mentioned that parents from students in classes A-E (goes up to H) had mentioned/complained that their child had not written many notes in their notebooks for any of their subjects for the past 3 days. Let me remind you that these are the 1st three days of the academic year. So, he advised us to make sure we are getting the students to take notes properly from now on. The brief chat ended with another "よろしくおねがいします yoroshiku onegai shimasu" and the teachers all went off to take the attendance in their home room.

I thought you might like to compare this situation with your own and evaluate whether this would be beneficial or not. It defintely has its merits, but it also takes 5-10 minutes of valuable time away from the already hectic mornings.