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Workout take 50!?!?

I ended my last blog in my health journey by saying: With my luck let’s see. Will I be able to get back on track before traveling for the summer? On Tuesday I will try once again. I hope and pray this is the end of the curse on me and working out!

Tuesday came… did I workout? NO! Why? Because my daughter was sick yet again and I was stuck at work till about 4pm. I messaged Ondrej and canceled our session and rescheduled for Sunday. Friday night my nanny returned and I thought to myself, I will finally have the time to do everything I need to do!

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Goodbyes

Working in International Schools is not easy. I am finding it harder and harder year after year to say goodbye to wonderful admin/teachers. As a teacher I used to hide so that no one could come and say bye as I know that tears will start rolling down. Being in an admin role I knew that I couldn’t do it as everyone wants to come by and say bye. Those whom I built relationships with were the hardest. With some of them, I managed to say bye from far and waved and gave them a flying kiss. They understood the way I am with goodbyes. Those who don’t know how I am with goodbyes probably thought I was weird, cold hearted and heartless.

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Workout..Me? Say what??!!

As most of you know since February I have been having a hard time when it comes to working out. For the past three years I have been working out consistently.

February hit and my back messed me up. I had to take a few weeks off from working out. When I was cleared, I had to start back from square 1 which I did not like at all. Once I started getting back on track my kids decided to get sick which resulted to many sleepless nights. When it came time to work out I was unmotivated and I found myself not concentrating during my sessions. Even in this state of mind I still tried my best and continued.

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Professionalism

Recently I tweeted the following statement: “Professionalism is…” A few people responded with their opinions.

What is professionalism in your eyes? How does it look and feel in your school?

Nearly completing my first year as an AP, I have come to wonder how professionalism is seen through other people’s views. I found myself comparing my own professionalism as a teacher for the past 10 years to now as an AP.

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A Manager vs. A leader

My dear colleague yet again came to my rescue. He gave me an interesting article to read. It was all about a manager and a leader and the differences between the two and the characteristics of each one. He handed it to me and told me to read it and then we would discuss it and that he would like to hear my feedback. I didn’t understand why he wanted me to do that but I went ahead and read it while I was doing my physiotherapy session.

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Do things ever calm down?!

Our days are getting crazier by the second. My to do list is getting longer and longer. There is not enough minutes in the day to get everything done. Not when you have meetings, parent meetings, staff to check in on, students problems to solve and the list goes on and on. I am sure many of you in an admin role can relate and understand what we go through. I have schedules I need to work on for next year but I can’t seem to get around to it. We had to edit reports cards last week which was about 603 pages. We had parent conferences this week and so many issues took place in between. On top of all of that, my daughter was sick with a high fever which meant many sleepless nights but managed to pull through. How? It’s beyond me. I honestly think we are robots at times and not human. Despite all of that, we get through it and get the things that need to get done. We are there for our staff, students and parents. Is it tiring ? YES. Exhausting? YES. Worth it? YES.

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“Paint Your Own Picture!”

A dear colleague of mine and I were chit chatting about a certain situation. Mid conversation he said to me, “Dana, paint your own picture to each individual you speak to, do not let them paint their own picture of you. You have made your point and taken that stand.” I stared at him for a moment and his sentence has been stuck in my head ever since we last spoke. That comment was so powerful and true! He gave me a few examples and it all made sense and clicked in my head. It amazes me how 1 sentence can change the situation all around. It makes more sense when people say, “you are not fine?” or “Why aren’t you smiling/Where is that smile?” or “I can never imagine you so mad or angry.”

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Coaching for the 1st time as an AP

A few days ago, I saw one of my staff members snap at another teacher without knowing. I thought to myself she might be having a bad day. A few days after that she did it again to another teacher without realizing once again. I thought wait, I need to tell her. If she’s moving up into a leadership position then she can not be like this at all. I don’t want people not liking her from day one. So I thought to myself tomorrow, I will speak to her off the record and as a friend. I knew wording it would be hard and I didn’t want her to get upset nor take it the wrong way.

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My 1st Big Event!

We had our National/Liberation day coming up and being a proud Kuwaiti, I wanted to make the day more exciting in ES. I wanted to have a day of activities and not just a parade like we’ve had in the past. My goal was to bring back the spirit. The KG AP and myself came up with a plan. For this day to happen we needed to have a committee. We knew that there was no way we could have pulled it off by ourselves as we simply didn’t have the time. After we planned everything out I sent out an email to staff asking if anyone was interested in joining us. I honestly didn’t expect many staff to volunteer but a couple of them said, “When we read your name we knew it would be an organized event and you are fun to work with. That’s why we wanted to join.” That comment put the biggest smile on my face.

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Budgets & Orders

It’s that time of year where we ask our staff to place their orders for next year. We extended their deadline one extra day. The deadline day was here! Did I do my AP order for next year? No. Did I have time to sit with the KG AP and discuss what we need to order? No. Do I know how much I have as an AP to order? No. Did my excel/link work from office 365 NO. Yes, I made sure all my staff questions were all asked before I sat down to do my own order. The staff left for the weekend and I sat down for 3.5 hours straight and completed my order. The deadline was met!

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