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