School Bell System

Bell Ringing stress.

You would be amazed what I’m about to say. There is an unforeseen stress in school offices which can be cured in a couple of days.

“Operating a Manual Bell at a school is stressful”, the amount of stress depends on the size of the school and the person incharge of the bell.

Can you imagine a Manual Bell button, you press the button and the bell rings, then the school changes class, a simple task.    Now you are told to press the button 12-15 times per day, and told it’s easy.    But you weren’t told you have to press the button 12-15 times per day for a year.    Actually for as long you are employed there.    You quickly find you cannot leave the office when it is near the time to ring the bell.

A month goes past, it’s a little painful keeping the Bell on time, it’s OK, no one said anything.

Three months go past, the teachers start getting agitated when the bells are late for the start of their classes. They bring it up in the Weekly Staff meetings. You now think you need to please the teachers. Subconsciously you start thinking ringing the bell on time is very important, you don’t want to upset the teachers and put in a more consous effort, because you’ll get the blame. You like working with your colleagues. You find being tied to the office to ring the bell is like prison, but you battle on not complaining, becuase it is a simple task.

Six months goes on, you have a bad day, there was a big run of couriers arriving, new software in the computer, a child was very sick and the parent needed contacting, you miss a bell completely. The teachers go nuts, and think you are an idiot,  “how hard is it press a simple little button anyway”. You feel bad for letting them down, and get stomach cramps and try to block it out of your mind. You battle on, it’s only a simple Bell Button.

The really bad thing is, this keeps going on because the people have got use to it so much they think this is just how it is. They lose site of the long term issue happening right infront of their eyes.

Having a Manual Bell at a school is like eating high cholesterol food, it’s a silent killer. It creates unnecessary stress on the Office staff and Teachers and the running of the school.

School Bells need to be automated for the sake of the Office Ladies Sanity.

The Best School Bell System I’ve found is a BellMinder, most highly recommended, it costs a little more but is well worth it. You can find one at http://www.bellminder.com

Alot of friends tell me they used to be the Bell Monitor kid, and they liked skipping class, and they felt really special with there friends.

What school staff also tell me is if the Bell Monitor student was away sick, in swinning class or in physical education class, then the bell ringging duty would be completley missed. It was upto the staff again to monitor the Bell, and jump into action when the bell didn’t ring.

What is more stressful.

1/ Having a Bell Monitor student operate the Bell?

2/ Having the School Staff operate the Bell ringging.

It’s #1, because there is two tasks plus an unknown. Monitoring the Time and Bell Monitor. The Bell Monitor arriving is an unknown.

The least stressful option is to have an Automatic Bell. You would not believe the great comments I get after the Bell is automated. If this was analysed scientifically, after an event there was happiness, therefore there is less stress.

Here’s a tip for choosing a School Bell Monitor kid.  From listening to a school recently, before they got a School Bell System, actually a BellMinder, they used a student to operate the electric bell.  As with most other schools this was terribly unreliable, by being late and the office staff still had to look after the Bell Monitor kid, so what is the advantage or benifit of a Bell Monitor Kid?.  The staff hate the mundane duty, and the kid takes away the task. Only if you get a good one!!

What made a difference was when they chose an autistic child to be Bell Monitor. The child was precise to the second at operating that bell and never missed a bell. It was bliss and even dreamy they told me. Untill he left school.