Battlestaff Brief is in One Hour, Does Anyone Have Some Duct Tape?

Setting up and getting started in my classroom over the last few weeks has been much like getting dropped into a deployed location, given 250 troops from different bases who have also just deployed, and supported with not much more than a hearty slap on the back from a grinning commander, "I know you'll take care of it, let me know if you need anything, gotta go." Well, actually sir. . .

The only thing I haven't done is exchange a knowing, "flexibility is the key to airpower" with a colleague hustling past in the hallway.

The parallels are truly amazing. I was officially hired two workdays before I was to greet my class. In those two days plus the weekend, I had to figure out where to get the keys to my room, get access to the district intranet, buy or scrounge supplies, locate and check out a digital projector, set up my seating chart, figure out where my students were academically, prepare lesson plans, prepare a class mission statement, develop a discipline plan consistent with school and district policy, put together course syllabi, locate the teacher work areas, establish policies and procedures for my classroom, grade semester exams I had not written or proctored, post semester grades using a piece of software I had never encountered nor received any training on, duct tape extension cables to the floor to keep students from tripping on them, duct tape the mission statement, policies and procedures, seating charts, and discipline plan to the wall, fill out several forms that presumably mean something to somebody somewhere else in the organization, and finally sit down and put together my first day's presentations.

It was, for those who are familiar, exactly like putting together an intel shop while the battlestaff is screaming for a brief. Only this battlestaff is composed of more than 200 14- and 15-year olds each of whom can be far more critical, disinterested, and potentially disruptive than any wing commander or mission director I have ever encountered. Furthermore, the briefing must maintain interest, increase knowledge, and challenge juvenile intellects for 85 minutes.

You know, that gives me an idea, maybe intel briefs would go over better if we gave wing commanders different colored markers and butcher paper to draw on, and then played a game to help them retain and apply the information.