It's been a busy week. And now, I sit on my couch looking forward to an extended long weekend. The fact that I'm blogging at 9:30 on a Friday night kind of surprises me, but...here I go!
As I said, it's been a busy week - one in which a number of things did not go as planned - some due to my own silly errors, and some due to life - or Murphy's Law. Why is it that it seems things seem to go awry at the most inopportune times?! Not that too many major things went awry (other than a broken dishwasher...and with a staff of 40, that's not an insignificant thing - thankfully, it was fixed within the day!). But things didn't necessarily go as I might have anticipated when I was on the front end of the week.
We had parent teacher conferences this week. That meant 2 back to back late nights at school...and a professional development day today...and a staff meeting on Monday...and then there are the things that don't even have anything to do with work!
Now, on this end of the week, as busy as it was, it was a good week. Parent teacher conferences went really well. I know that teachers sometimes go into them feeling a bit uncertain about how they will go. How will parents hear the information that is shared - especially if some of it may be difficult information? Will parents express a concern that I'm not sure how to deal with? Will I be blindsided by anything? Will I be able to express what I want to say appropriately so that parents know that care for their child? The late nights are tiring, but the emotional exhaustion from 25+ conferences is no small thing. I'm so very thankful that our staff felt that conferences went well and that they were encouraged and supported in their work. We value the parent-school relationship and are so appreciative of the work parents do to support their children's learning.
Today, we had a professional development day. Staff came to school feeling like they'd just put in a full week and were a bit leery of a pro-d day that would require them to think and stretch and even participate in various activities. And yet, staff were engaged in their book clubs in the morning...lots of relevant, good dialogue and discussion took place. Darren Spyksma, one of the new directors of learning at SCSBC, led staff in working on how to engage students in their learning and how we, as teachers, can find ways to have them involved, invested and in charge of their own learning. He had staff thinking about their learning activities and participating in a great challenge that had all staff engaged in creating various tunnels and pathways for marbles! And the teamwork and creativity that emerged from that was really fun to watch! Staff spent the afternoon doing a variety of things. Elementary staff worked on planning for our all school unit - we laughed a lot together and even had a productive afternoon! Middle school staff met with Darren to discuss what kinds of learning activities and spaces work best for middle school children. High school staff worked on finishing up course overviews. My sense is that people enjoyed the day and may even have been pleasantly surprised at how engaged they were in the activities of the day.
And now...a 4 day weekend. Rest and renewal is something that is we all need. We need time to spend away from the busyness (and business) of work. We need time to enjoy a leisurely morning, maybe even waking up without an alarm clock! We need time to enjoy a good book or a movie. We need time to enjoy some fresh air - time in the garden, or going for a walk or exploring a part of God's creation. We need time to invest in and renew relationships - with family, with friends, with God. We need that bit of distance from the job that we all love to do. And we need that rest in order to our job to the best of our ability. God calls us to enjoy Sabbath rest. I pray that we all get a good dose of that this long weekend.
