Long Week

Funny how a 4 day work week can tire me out and worry me so very much.

This week has had its ups and downs. Yesterday was a down day, today not so much so.

I received an email from our principal last night asking to meet with me....What? So many things going through my mind. Did I do something wrong? Was there a complaint about me? What did I do? Is it about the union? Am I going to be moved to a different class?

When I first read the email I was shocked. Then I thought I better phone the teacher I am working with this year to let her know about it. I probably shouldn't have but I felt she should know about it. Seems that she was very worried as well and had problems sleeping.

I arrived at work, and the first person I saw was the principal. I asked him when he wanted to meet and then came right out and asked if I had done something wrong as sleep was a hard commodity to come by last night. The poor man looked at me and said "Of course not, I am so sorry to have worried you. It was recommended to me that I ask you to sit in this meeting as a mediator if necessary by the Director of Student Services."

What? It seems that one of the other aides was giving him a very rough time with placement procedures, and he was worried about what was going to happen at this meeting.

While I agree with much of what our union has accomplished there are certain things I do take a neutral stance on. I am not rabidly union like a few of our members, and am willing and usually able to see both sides of the story.

Things went well, and everyone seems to be happy (at least aide wise). I do know that some of the teachers might be a bit upset with the appointment of one aide. She will be in grade 8 and can't seem to do even grade 6 math so there is a problem in the works. During the last two weeks, this same aide worked in the younger grades and had problems with English Language Arts, Spelling and Math. Heaven help the students.

One of our boys seem to be coming around. He has been coming in early every day to get work done that he didn't do at home. This morning he came in and started to talk to me about his football game tomorrow. He was a bit disappointed that his mom would not go and talked about riding his bike to the game. The look on his face just about broke my heart. I asked him when he played and then said maybe I would come and watch him play. His face just lit right up. When Harvey got home I talked to him about it. The first thing he said was "Your heart broke, didn't it?" I had to admit it did, and what I had told this child. My dear sweet husband looked at me and smiled and said "You did the right thing." Guess tomorrow morning at 9 am I will be down in the park watching this young fellow play football.

Off to visit all of you.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.