It has been almost 2 weeks since writing in my blog. I went from writing in my blog about my learning every day to writing twice in the last month! It’s not that I haven’t been learning, because I definitely have! It’s all about time and balance. I’ve been so busy with work (and my family) that writing in my blog has landed near the bottom of the heap, unfortunately.
So, what have I learned during the last month or so…
- Relationships are still my priority at work and at home. You can’t inspire, motivate, reach anyone if you don’t first develop a trusting relationship. That being said, trusting relationships take time and must be built during times of stress, learning, and growth. This isn’t always easy, and often a real challenge, but it is worth the time and effort to establish.
- There are not problems – just opportunities to learn and find solutions. This year we are learning to do things differently. It is imperative not to get frustrated, but look at the challenges that are presenting themselves as opportunities to learn – about all education stakeholders, as well as learn about ourselves.
- While I am an optimistic person who doesn’t get bogged down with negativity, I have learned just how important this is with the challenges that are being presented in the province in education right now.
- The beginning of the school year can be demanding and challenging – especially in a high-needs inner-city school. But, things are coming together:
- All the kids are settling into their classes
- The teachers are settling into their routines with all of their schedules completed and in place
- I’m getting to know the students, their families, and the staff.
- All class composition consultations are complete and are being followed up on (What great conversations with staff we had during these meetings. They often had great suggestions about how to make their class workload more manageable).
- Collaboration with all the classroom teachers and the LST / Counsellor are almost completed. It is unfortunate that as administrators we have not been able to both attend all the meetings, but we have enjoyed working in the classes during this time, allowing the classroom teachers time to discuss the needs of their class.
- My own students, in the prep classes I am teaching, are settling in to routines and are starting to work quite well together – we even made our first rubric together in a couple of my French classes. It was great to hear their ideas for the rubric!
- The behaviour of the students has been phenomenal – we’ve had very little, if any, student behaviour concerns. While I am new to this school, I have heard that this has not been the case in the past. We wonder if having both administrators on supervision each and every day has made a difference in student behaviour. Hmmmm…. whatever the reason, we’ll take it and enjoy it!
- I learned how to type out braile. One of our kindergarten students is blind. As a result, the mom brought in a brailing machine for the teacher to use. I had the opportunity to use the brailer with the kindergarten student to type her name. Very interesting, indeed.
- I’ve learned that I can probably teach anything. tee hee – and that includes FRENCH! I would never, in a million years, imagined being on supervision and having students approach me speaking French, and me answering IN French! I still chuckle every time this happens.
- I’ve learned the importance of making those connections quickly with those students who need you most and how this will help with behaviour in the long run.
- I have learned that our school has such caring, student-centred adults who work tirelessly with the students and their families in our school.
- I have learned about many of the community programs available to our school and to other inner-city schools. All of these are such wonderful opportunities for our school population!
I have learned that the ability to balance life and work is more difficult at certain times of year, but it *will* happen (right?). Sometimes the balancing act is a difficult one. I could probably write a whole post just about balance. It has got a bit better though – at least I wasn’t up working until 1am much this past week. Balance will get better though with September coming to an end. September is always such a busy month, but more so in an inner-city school.
I could probably go on forever about all the things I’ve learned since our students and their families entered our school on September 6th. I feel fortunate to be doing the work I am doing and look forward to continuing to learn and develop as a person, teacher, and administrator.
I’ve learned a lot this past month, as I always do, what have you learned lately?
It's All About Learning 