Yesterday, my principal sent out a mass email to the teaching staff. The following is an excerpt:

Update your grades every week. (No excuses or exceptions.)

Notify your respective office when you assign a lunch detention, and
make sure the student is clear about whether or not s/he has lunch detention.

Take roll in the first ten minutes of every class.

If you're going to make an issue out of tardies with a student, be
sure to track them properly and follow the tardy policy that is
posted throughout the school.

Keep your students in class from bell to bell unless it's a bathroom
emergency. If you send a student to the bathroom, give them a pass
and be sure to track how long they're gone. If a student asks over
and over again every day to go to the bathroom, tell him/her no.

Teachers perpetually complain about their being perceived as non-professionals, by school boards, adminstrators, parents, and the general public. We want our personas to exude this holier than thou level of respect among these groups.

Yet, we have to be reminded, told, DIRECTED to do these basic things each day in our classes?? SERIOUSLY???

All those items seem to obvious, so critical to the success of a teacher, I find it astounding to think enough teachers are neglecting those tasks that a mass email is needed.

If we want to be treated professionally, don't you think the first step to accomplishing that goal would be our acting professionally? Do your job, do it well, and everything else will fall into place. If you can't manage to take attendance, keep grades up to date, keep track of tardies and students, then you are in the wrong profession. THOSE are the easy parts of the job!