In the past week, cardboard boxes have filled my life. And they are teaching me lessons. As most of you know, I am a Literacy Coach at an Elementary School. This year our state adopted new reading texts, so that meant that all the "old stuff" got boxed up and returned to the warehouse and was replaced with a brand new program.
As with most things in our world, new often means MORE. This reading series has MORE components than ever before. For each teacher, there are close to 10 large boxes of materials. I know ten sounds manageable, but when you multiply that times sixty classrooms, that's a lot of boxes.
Earlier in the summer, we had a team of teachers come in to sort and mark grade level materials by teacher. Everything was neatly laid out by grade level and further divided by teacher. I made arrangements to meet with our custodial staff for delivery to classrooms. Although it may have seemed a bit anal, I decided to give each custodian a cart and only put ONE teacher's materials on it. After they delivered it, they returned to me to pick up the next teacher's stuff.
I don't know how much more carefully we could have done this.
It wasn't long before my friend Brenda (see her photo in the post below) came to me and said Mr. SoandSo doesn't have any materials, and I'm missing a box. My head nearly spun on my neck as I reiterated how methodical we were being to avoid this sort of thing. And it was worse because her grade level (K) was the first one out of the chute!
We scoured the school. Several times. We put out an email APB for the missing materials. I looked the next day. I was devastated. I mean the cost is nearly $3000 per teacher! It didn't take me long to get in touch with my judging side and decide that one of the custodians must have taken my kit. And I determined to look at the security cameras to find out.
Friday morning, I spent three hours with my AP going camera by camera to watch the kits move around the school. As we entered the third hour of second by second detective work, I noticed the K kit leaving the K building and heading for another building via one of the custodians. Then he came out of that building with an empty cart. My answer was somewhere in that second building.
I immediately left the office, grabbed Brenda, and headed to the building in question. It was there that the "mystery" suddenly made sense. To protect the people involved, let's just say the kit was going to "Mr. Smith". In the second building is our school's Science teacher...whose name would be equivalent to "Smithers". See? They SHARE the same first five letters of their name. The custodian, who has just begun reading in the past few years, delivered by "sight"
Mystery solved!
Mystery two occured when a first grade teacher came to me to tell me that she was missing one particular box. I asked her if she'd checked with her teammates because I KNOW the boxes were delivered. She asked a few of them. But not ALL of them.
As she headed off to ask a teacher in another building, I walked to her neighbor's room around the corner and found the box. In five minutes!
Mystery solved!
Lessons learned:
1: Don't be so quick to judge a situation.
2: You've got to look at things from all angles to find a solution.
3: Sometimes the answer is right around the corner!
And finally...
You never know what you can learn from a box!
13 comments:
Great life lessons... I need to apply that to something today. Too bad I can't very quickly "teach" it to someone else who has JUST done the opposite of all 3 in the negative!
LOL - some excellent lessons there. :)
Thank you for sharing. :)
Good day Susan, you were a busy person getting all of the boxes to the right teacher's rooms....I need to apply your tools to my housework...I would rather be blogging than cleaning ... have a good day. hugs, Baba
God is constantly teaching us patience!!!
Susan
Wow! You were quite the detective to find that first box! I hope the rest of the beginning of school with go off without a hitch!
OMGoodness - what a way to gear up for the new year. LOL! I seriously think there is a black hole in schools - one that involves the mail room (and the teacher's lounge)!!!!!
Wishes for a great start of the year!!
And...I will never look at a cardboard box the same again! :D
What a great bunch of lessons here! If only I could remember these things when I need them now! LOL
UGH! I think I just learned HOW frustrating YOUR job can BE sometimes!!! I'd have been after that box too though -- boy howdy! $3000 school budget dollars is a LOT of classroom supplies!
Yes I can understand how frustrating it can be when you are so 'organised' with something or with how something is done and then it seems to get muddled and you end up having to sort it out.
Great post... and you are right we have a lot in common. I was a kindergarten teacher for most of my career but I was also a lead teacher without a classroom of kids for awhile. It was basically a literacy coach helping the teachers develop a guided reading program in their classrooms. It was amazing to see school life from that angle... working with teachers instead of students. I admire you this is a difficult job.
I was also a textbook evaluator for the state of NC for, maybe 15 years (just during the summer). I helped select the textbooks that were placed on the state adoption list. Each summer we evaluated a different subject. Talk about boxes... you are right! How could that much "stuff" come with each adoption... specially in Science and Math. My hats off to YOU, educators (some) are God's angels only they are dressed as teachers!
According to Emma, boxes are fun to play in too. Your boys get more handsome on a daily basis. Gotcha prayed up for your school year.
Your transparency made us all think!
Your post made me just a bit "homesick" for school. I'm taking this year off to help my Senior do college visits. I am finding that I do miss some of that back to school prep work and getting the classroom ready for all the little faces. However, I know by the lack of stress in my life that this was a good decision for me. I will be subbing when I can and am actually looking forward to it!
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