All The Little Things You Should Know

Today was my first day back to work. I worked for 6 hours, transported three students and did a lot of learning (partly from the book I am reading and the rest from people). Here are the lessons I learned:

One thing that seems to always pop up is some employees are liked by their boss and some aren't. It is amazing what you can learn about stuff in the workplace if your boss likes you, namely who they like and don't like. One of the guys that pretty much all my bosses (5) do not like we will call Ted (as in 'Bill and Ted' cause they are both dumb). Ted does not seem to understand that you want to be nice to your boss. When your boss is doing 19 things to give them a chance to get what they view to be a priority taken care of before you make a nuisance of yourself. Well Ted I guess is a ted cause he thinks if you get a really stern voice and yell at your supervisor over the radio (which by the way is aired in approximately 125 different locations that I know of) you will not only get your boss' attention sooner but also gain their favor. I hope I can put this into practice so I can be more liked by my bosses.

The other thing I learned is on the first day of school do not count on your student's teacher getting your kid on the right bus. It was amazing how many kids we had who were lost today. I can remember 10 or so. There were around 20 kids which were not 'lost' but on the completely wrong bus on the wrong side of town. You know, the 'wrong-side of town' that is 30 minutes away from their home. Now, my wife has already made a comment on one of my blog entries regarding my tendancy to exaggerate. Maybe I exaggerate sometimes, but this is no exaggeration. My quesiton is this: If the teachers just throw kids on a bus so they can leave work early on the first day of the school year, what do these teachers do the rest of the year? Some of the classrooms have small closets. Do the teachers tie the kids up and shove them all in the closet for a couple hours a day? I think they must because some kids I drive are pretty dumb...oops...maybe I should say challenged. This one school I drove out of last year had some 'challenged' youth. The four times I drove out of this school I always drove for the same bus. Two other buses would pick up at that school. I, because of scheduling, was always last in line just as it occured when the regular driver was there. These kids, like 30 of them, would walk to the front bus and ask if it was there bus. Mind you, this same bus and driver was there everyday and told them everyday which bus was theirs. Then, walking away from the first bus, would ask the second bus if that bus was theirs. The second bus would tell the kids what the first bus told them and upon forgetting the second bus drivers' information would walk to the third and final bus. Only three buses would go there and ask, "Is this Paco's bus?" I would say yes. Now, you maybe getting confused because I am off on a tangent from the story's origin. Yes, I began talking about the first day of school with teachers putting students on the wrong bus and a few special ed students on a bus who were not signed up to take the bus. (And that is lame since the student you have can not talk and no one knows who this kid is or where they live.) The story of the st...uh...'challenged' youth was from my experience at the end of the school year. I was not hired at this district until the end of March. So, after 7+ months of going to the bus, they still did not know what bus was theirs...It must be because they were locked in a closet all day.

The third little thing you should know is when approaching a green light, stop at the limit line, look both ways, get all the people following behind you to slam on their brakes, and when you feel like it, proceed with great caution.