Safety First

Asbestos. Fire Extinguishers. Blood borne pathogens. Bullying prevention. Safety data sheets. Hazard communication. And, now, active shooter.

I know so much about all of these topics, I score 100% on the quizzes without watching the videos. But, I have to watch the videos. Some are easy peasy, 10-15 minutes. Others drag on for 40+ minutes,  the pace of the reader painfully s-l-o-w for this speed reader. Fast forwarding is not an option. I tried that last year, only to be shot back to the same video because I didn't meet the time requirements.

GAAAAAAAAAH!!!

Since I definitely don't have time to do these things at work,  they become homework, as they do for 99.9% of my colleagues.

I am a firm believer that we should be allowed to CLEP out of these things like you can some college courses. Instead of CLEP, (College Level Examination Program) we could call it the STEP (Safety Training Exemption Program). Seriously.  We differentiate learning for students all the time--can't we do it for the adult learners? I could be writing instructional guides, the looming deadline rapidly approaching. I could be building the trainings for preschool week and the crucial few weeks after school starts. I could be troubleshooting how to help our teachers and students with some of the wonky features of our reading programs.

OK. Whine session over. When it comes down to it, I know these things are important. The safety of our kids is paramount. And, in our schools, we aren't just responsible for teaching kids, we also have the hefty weight of their physical and emotional well-being on our shoulders. So, I will watch every last one of the videos. I will look for something new to learn or something I may have forgotten. With so many of things out of our control when it comes to kids and school, I can at least control being informed enough to prevent the preventable and know what to do when the unpreventable happens.

Be safe out there.

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