Saturday, YEA!!!

It's a good week to have over. Morale at work this week was at an all time low. That's so not us!

Our principal has been out recurperating from back surgery. In the meantime, everyone returned from the Thanksgiving break ready to get to work. Tuesday the news spread that two of our employees had gone to District Office to speak to the Superintendent about a situation at our school.

The result? A teacher, a student and the principal are being affected. The staff is upset that our colleagues chose to bypass the principal and go straight to DO. No one can understand the motive either because they aren't teachers nor work directly with teaching students.

I was in my room all day and didn't know a thing about this. I had an encounter with a staff member during the morning and she was really rude and nasty to me. Completely out of line and I was upset. It turns out it was one of the ladies who had gone to District....

Needless to say, the level of trust has plummeted and Tuesday was a @#&*$!**! day.
What did I encounter on my way out to my car Tuesday? This beautiful sunset. Boy, I needed this!

Our Fearless Leader returned to work Thursday afternoon and joined us for our weekly staff meeting. We had a session on breaking down teaching stragedies. It was perplexing. So much education speak. Miss Darla explained it in terms that finally made sense to me. We've been using these stragedies and teaching in this manner for years so it seems like it should be more complicated. I have a a hard time because I think in Artspeak not Education Speak but I always hit the mark on my evaluations.

Afterwards our Principal addressed the the Staff. She had a lot of thoughts and had written them down. This school is her baby. Eight years ago she was selected to lead a brand new school that was being built. From day one everyone said we'd have the worse kids, the lowest scores, little parent involvement, you name it. We've proved them wrong-many time over. Teachers are so chatty at meetings but it was absolute silence as we listened.

Over time, our staff has changed but about 1/2 of us were here Day 1. It's hard not to be proud of this school we have created and these students we have taught and cared for over the years. It's good to have our Principal back at the helm, addressing the issues head on and setting the tone.

It doesn't change the fact that I am beyond glad to have this week come to an end.

I had a bunch of pics of my card swap project and my Chunky Funky pages that I finished for this week but it feels like that's best left for another post. I was up late in the studio every night. The art making saved me this week. I avoided writing period but dug out some books to read from the pile on my nightstand.

The "pile." That's a whole other prompt to blog about! Have a good weekend.

Marissa