On Thursday one of the counselors and myself were in a meeting with a parent to discuss her son’s latest behavior. Our counselor began speaking and then I continued. We tried giving the mother some time to digest what we were saying. The mother started speaking about her son’s brains and about how it controls him. Our counselor quickly jumped in and explained what was really happening to him and told her what she needs to tell him the minute he says what he says.
Author: Dana Shuhaibar
World Read Aloud Day!
On Thursday we had World Read Aloud Day at AIS. We decided as admin to read to our students. Because my day was crazy insane on Wednesday I had no time to pick a book. The KG AP shared books and I picked one at night. While I was reading the book I got an idea to act it out as well and do something different for a change for our students.
The Day in the life of an AP without your Principal!
The day has come when my principal would not be at school for 3 days. It was the day I feared most. My goodness, 2 days of trying to be in so many places at once was insane. Day 1 started at 6:30am and ended at 5:15pm. It was non stop, one thing after the other. I could only connect with the KG AP for about 10 minutes. At one point, I had to be at 3 different places at once. Between attending to teacher’s needs, to solving students behavior problems, to answering angry parents, to going into meetings, to calling home and speaking to parents, to making decisions on the spot, to seeing unexepected parents that showed up at my office was exhausting and overwhelming.
Continue reading “The Day in the life of an AP without your Principal!”
A simple yet powerful question.
A few days ago after school I was sitting at my desk and a staff member stopped by and asked, “How was your day?” I was so focused on the screen and thinking of what I had to finish that when I looked up at her I didn’t know how to answer. It took me a few seconds to understand what she was asking. Finally I answered back by saying “Come again? Sorry I was so focused on the screen I didn’t quite hear you.”
Feedback. Reflect. Action.
Few day ago, ES admin went to each grade level and got feedback from them to see how we can support them more and to find out what they need. We agreed to only listen and not to comment. We listened and wrote down what they said. Just like all schools, it’s a busy time of year so we felt staff morale was not high in energy. We wanted to see why and what we could do as admin to help them.
And the tables have turned…
A few days ago I received a whatsapp message from one of my closest friends with her BMI results and weight gain. She was going crazy and said, “OMG look, how will I lose this Dana?! I have 12 kilos to lose! This is the first time I reached this weight and I don’t have the patience like you….” and on and on she went. Mind you, it doesn’t look like she put on 2 kilos yet alone 12!!! Continue reading “And the tables have turned…”
Balancing?!
These past two weeks were full of issues after issues. I have come to realize how exhausting it is to balance everything between my work and personal life. On top of that, I am always ensuring that I am able to stay calm in front of my staff and continue to smile and joke with them. I try not to let them know that while they are speaking, I have about 101 thoughts in my head. Being in this position for about 6 months has been a roller coaster. Obviously life of an AP is completely different to life as a team leader/teacher as I am exposed to so many things. In this role, I am behind the scenes seeing how things are run and how decisions are made. Continue reading “Balancing?!”
Compliments…Say what?!?!?!?
During the weekend my children were invited to a birthday. I dread going to kids birthdays because I am there as a parent or as the AP depending if there are parents from school or not. More than half of the time I see parents from our school there. I am not the type of mother who sends her kids to birthdays with the nanny. Therefore, I am forced to see parents because I simply can’t stop my kids going to their friends birthdays. The minute they see me they start asking questions, give me their feedback or say something negative. To hear a compliment is very rare now a days and I simply do not understand why! Continue reading “Compliments…Say what?!?!?!?”
Yes! I inspired someone!
Yesterday, my principal and I were sitting and chatting while taking a 2 minute break. Out of the blue he says, “look, I have been good” and takes his last sip from his bottle and shakes it to show that he’s done drinking it. I looked at him, laughed and said, “bravo boss.” I didn’t understand why he was saying that nor showing me. I’m sure he felt I was puzzled at what he said because he continued by saying “I had my veggies for lunch and this is my green smoothie. I had no chocolates and only 3 cups of coffee.” I clapped! I could not believe he didn’t have ANY sweets and it was already 12pm! WOW! So I clapped even harder and louder and said, “awesome job, now keep it up boss!” He looked at me and said, “I have you to thank.”
The +1 Principle Article
I just read an article by John Wink about the +1 Principle. I find it interesting how as administrators we keep adding onto our staff’s plate without removing anything first. When I was a teacher I felt that tasks were being added left, right and center without any tasks being removed for us. However, this year the admin team are trying to remove tasks before adding anything. We meet, discuss, and see if it’s worth implementing or not. We evaluate what would be the outcomes if we do.