Countdown

22 days.

Last night I spent a good couple of hours revising and perfecting my disclosure documents. They are truly a thing of beauty. I remember when I was a student thinking how stupid the disclosure documents were. My parents thought the same thing; my mom always signed them without reading them. But as I have become a teacher, I realize disclosure documents are good for maybe a couple of reasons, but there is one reason that stands supreme: to cover my butt. A parent whines because I won't accept their child's late work without a coupon? Sorry, you agreed to it when you signed the disclosure document! Complain that it's not fair your student loses all participation points because they used lab equipment inappropriately? Sorry, you agreed to it when you signed the disclosure document!

I was also writing about the course content for biology, and described it as such:

"The main objective of introductory biology is to introduce students to biology and to help them see biology in the world around them. Main content topics include ecology of ecosystems, cell structure and function, organs and organ systems, genetics, DNA, biological diversity related to evolutionary processes, and classification."

Then, to cover my butt when some parent actually reads the disclosure document and freaks out when they see the word "evolution:"

"All [yes, the word is bolded in my disclosure document] course content follows that of the Utah State Biology Core which can be found at http://www.uen.org/core/core.do?courseNum=3520. A copy of the Utah State Board of Education Position Statement on Teaching Evolution is found as the last page in this series of documents."

Disclosure documents. A thing of beauty. Mainly to save my bacon.