Unexpectedly Appreciated
This week at school has been workshop week. Teachers and paras are coming back, everyone's getting ready for students next week, and my job is suddenly full of interruptions. "Please print this," "What classroom is this student in," "I don't have a key yet," etc., all while I'm trying to finalize rosters1, get student records sent off to new schools or requesting records for new students, answering emails, planning para training, answering parent phone calls, and responding to requests from the district. To add to this, we have three new programs being implemented at the same time, so there's extra training (when the district remembers we need to know how to use the new communication app), testing the new systems, struggling through the inevitable bugs, and wondering what the heck the district has even done this summer that we're still struggling with the new timesheet system a week before school starts. And on top of it all, this is my last week to move things from my old place to my new place, and I've been doing it mostly by myself, hauling boxes up and down stairs until I am exhausted2.
All this stress meant Wednesday night I succumbed to the siren call of Youtube Shorts and couldn't pull myself free of it's grasp until midnight, which meant I got less than 6 hours of sleep (after weeks of barely 7 hours a night and working to physical exhaustion), and then had to sit though our district's all-staff meeting in the morning. Let me tell you, I was fighting for my life trying to stay awake. All Thursday, I felt like I was on low battery; sluggish, barely able to keep from being grumpy, and just wishing for a long nap. All this sets the stage for what happened Thursday afternoon.
We had our district tech guy (who is awesome, I do not include him in my grumblings about the district staff) come to present to the teachers the new teacher-parent communication app we now have to use. Tech Guy is super nice, a bit soft-spoken, and is not as experienced at presenting in front of people as the teachers (or me for that matter). I was trying to listen and learn, since when my teachers have tech issues I'm one of their first points of contact before they go to the tech office, and I like learning new systems. But for some reason, the teachers and paras kept talking, with noisy side conversations that increased in volume the longer Tech Guy talked. And I could tell he didn't know what to do; he just kind of pushed through with an uncomfortable expression on his face.
After a few minutes, I could not sit still anymore, and my grumpy, super tired self stood up and basically eviscerated everyone, politely. I told them they were being rude and disrespectful and I was disappointed that teachers were acting like this because I was sure they controlled their classrooms better.
Now, I'm very non-confrontational. I hate it. It gives me anxiety, and I worry about how people will respond. So the whole time I'm dressing them down, I'm on the absolute verge of tears, struggling to keep my chin from wobbling and revealing my weakness. But when I finished and sat down, it was silent the rest of the time Tech Guy presented.
Today, Friday, I have had emails and direct conversations with people who all thanked me for what I did. Who said they appreciated me standing up. Who went out of their way to let me know.
It was a great feeling, to be appreciated.
Thoughts to share? I have a contact page now!
Rosters have been a disaster this year because our sorter program to put students in classrooms didn't work right, and because teachers changed their minds about student placement and teacher exchanges after I'd already finished things. I had planned on being completely done with rosters the first week of August so I could focus on other things, but that went right out the window and I only just finished today.↩
I do not recommend spreading a move across two months. It's been miserable. Also, I own too much stuff and I'm on the verge of tossing everything and going minimalist.↩