Why are parents becoming needy and hard to deal with year after year? Why is it always their child and no one else’s? Over the last 11 years parents have changed. I must say that I’ve seen all sorts of parents from my 1st to my 10th year teaching and has continued now into my 1st year as an AP.
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Switch off & reenergize!
Thank God for the weekend. I just had one of the roughest weeks I have ever had. I am glad it’s over. There are so many things going on at once and at times it’s hard to keep up with. Friday is family day, one day out of the week should honestly be dedicated to spending time with your family. I wanted to disconnect from work and not be reached by anyone from work. Is it wrong to feel that way? So I decided to leave my work phone at home. It’s my time, my family, my sanity. I barely see my family during the week so I owe it to them to give them my undivided attention to them without any distraction.
AP Job Description in 10 minutes
We had 10 minutes to eat and decompress and instead the KG AP and I sat down and wrote our very own AP job description. We listed what we do minute by minute from the moment we enter the school till the time we leave. Yes our official working hours is from 7:15 till 3. But we are always here by 6:30 am and we leave by 4pm at the earliest. There are days that that we leave at 5pm depending on what we have to do since there is never any time during the day.
A Moment of Realization…
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.
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?!?!?!?”