Both Hands

i'm thinking that i need to either eat my lunch somewhere besides the teacher's lounge or eat in the lounge when there's no staff in there.

several teachers have taken to discussing school politics in the staff lounge during their lunch break. while i agree with the fact that everyone's entitled to their opinion, it puts me in a bind when they make direct eye contact with me while voicing their opinion. i've explained a couple of times that i refuse to blame anyone for a child who is struggling in school academically or behaviorally (or the combination of both struggles), and that i'm here to help children that are struggling. i relocated my life fr0m the east coast to the northwest not for the scenery or the weather, but because i want to help these students.

having said this, a couple of teachers now feel that it is ok to just vent their feelings on parents to me, knowing that i will not agree with them or defend the action of the parents of their students. i told these teachers that if they feel strongly about this issue, they should make the time to be involved in Maple Tree's ATP. several teachers laughed. the thing is, i wasn't joking.

i usually don't eat lunch with these teachers, since i usually eat later in the day, but i had to take my lunch a little earlier than i normally do today. the staff members i usually eat with will talk about subjects that i have no problem discussing.

anyway, on to something a little more lighthearted...

this morning i made and distributed copies of a flyer for teachers about Maple Tree's Action Team. I've got parents and community members ready to get involved and the support of the school principal. because i put the flyers in the teacher mailboxes after they all collected their mail, i'm going to give them until the end of the school week to get back to me (basically, the end of tomorrow, since i'm not at the school on fridays). after that, im going to start taking the time to talk to as many individual teachers as i need to in order to get staff support on my ATP.

i'm also glad to report that i'm starting to get responses from the parents surveys i sent out with yesterday's tuesday folder! i've also placed two parent volunteers in the library and will be training another parent volunteer for snack distribution tomorrow morning. i have information for two other parents who are interested in volunteering, but i'm hanging to one for when we start doing snack 5 days a week (right now it's just tuesdays and thursdays). the other parent said that she could not commit to volunteering a regular basis but would like to when she has the time, so i'm hanging onto her information for future events we may need volunteers for.

Maple Tree's principal is having a meet and greet this afternoon that i'm sticking around for. someone from growing power and west granville presbyterian will be here for it, so i want to talk to them about the ATP.

it's going to take a lot of caffeine to get through today...