Saturday, February 7, 2009

Two Mondays and a Friday!

That's what this week was for me... well, not really. But we had school on Monday.. so it was the first Monday. Then... out of the blue... a big snow storm and schools were closed on Tuesday... and Wednesday... can you believe it.. So.. back to school on Thursday... but being away for 2 days made Thursday feel like Monday and therefore that was our second Monday. And tada!!!!!
The very next day was Friday... which, indeed felt like a Friday... not a Tuesday, which it really should have felt like!!!

Now, to clarify. On the storm days (Tuesday and Wednesday), I went into work, because its the rules. We are not covered by a union (which I am mostly happy about) and therefore, we must be at school on storm days until the board deems the work sites are closed. But being at work on a storm day is like no other experience. Its... quiet..... deathly quiet. The music that plays from my iMac fills the room like a dance hall. And when a good song comes on, I and turn it up really loud and sing.. dance... or cry if I want to. There is nobody else in the building. If the weather isn't really bad, I will see a teacher or two pop in during the day, and a cleaner roaming the halls but generally its quiet. There are very few interruptions, distractions or emergencies and although I love those days, I wouldn't want to work in such a quiet environment every day.

So the treat for me this week was although I worked all 5 days, unlike most of my friends, I was in productivity heaven for Tues and Wednesday and sort of flying high on Thursday, because I was soooo almost caught up.. and then Friday came. Friday started with reconciliation problems with my bank statement, that would be a snap to correct if I was using a pencil and eraser. But since its computerized, web-based and somewhat complicated, it took a few phone calls to get the problem diagnosed... and it set me back 3 months... since we were all learning this system and the manager of the program gave me wrong advice and resulted in her having to delete 3 months of successful reconciliations... While I worked away at correcting that problem, our bus manager dropped by with the news that we are losing a bus. Our administration was so happy about the actual bus we were losing (due to severe discipline issues after school with it) they neglected to acknowledge that it affects 9 bus runs... which I have to update, absorb and communicate to about 100 families.. by Wednesday... Bank stuff... can wait.

Staff Appreciation week is coming up and we had some last minute planning and decision making to do, as well, involving phone calls, "google searches" creating on Microsoft and therefore... Bus Stuff can wait....then lunch time hits... bandaids and puke and poop... oh my... Staff Appreciation can wait!

Our newsletter went home on Thursday and in it, I put a plea for knitted mitts. We give our mitts to kids who forget mitts at home, or just don't have any and we were totally out of mitts! And the very next day I received 6 knitted pairs from my principal's mom and MJ bought 3 nice bright pink pairs from the Superstore! Amazing when you ask for help....

I decided to hang a clothes line up in the hallway for the mitts to be displayed and easy access for the kids to collected and to hang back up to dry. Nice for the kids to learn how to use a clothes line too, which seems to be a challenge for some of them! At one point at lunchtime, there were only 2 pairs of mitts left on the line, and they all got returned after lunch. Very good for the first day.!

And... that was Friday... not much accomplished except a mitten clothesline and some first aid!!!

6 comments:

SAM said...

I love that you have blogged....you are amazing at what you do.....Kingston is a better place because you work there and I mean that!! I think you are the best first aider/ bus wrangler/ queen/ bank statement organizer/ puke dealer wither....ever!! And you do it all with a smile....and occasional use of a water gun!

SAM said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Love the mitten clothesline - fun idea and great for the kids to take the responsisiblity of bringing them back and hanging them up.
The reward for Fridays like yours are Saturday and Sunday - hope you are relaxing and storing up your energy for the coming week!
Debbie

GailM. said...

Yes, storm days must be so quiet. Do you keep a storm day list. I do, but it's more sewing related..ha ha. The mitts clothes line is a perfect idea. I've always said.. YOU SHOULD WRITE A BOOK.....and go on Oprah, and become a millionaire author!!!!

Anonymous said...

Love the Mitten clothesline, great for the kids and nice to see them use the clothes pins....good practise for later....could help Moms in the summer. Kingston School is very lucky to have you....you are the BEST. Your Diamondtologist Friend.

tdp said...

a big DITTO on everything that everyone has just said!
You are an amazing lady, the school is lucky to have you, and I love reading your blog :)
Always makes me smile.....