Friday: Friday begins a bit like Monday in that I meet with all of the secondary staff in the junior high portable, except that this time a staff member will lead a devotional. The devotionals allow people to share their faith in a way that speaks to their personality and understanding of God, and to inspire, encourage, and challenge us. It is related to the theme or value for the month. This month is patience. There's always good time to visit and debrief about the week as well.
The periods this day are all 30 minutes back-to-back (which means we really get 25 minutes of instructional time if we're lucky). School finishes at 1:00 and I do 15 minutes of outdoor supervision, which mostly involves visiting with kids about their weekend plans. Then we have a staff meeting from 1:30-3:15/3:30 which takes a different focus each week. This might include meeting in a PLC (professional learning community) about a specific pedagogical issue, brainstorming about how to best support students of concern, or getting an update about major school initiatives from administration or the board of directors.
I miss being able to wear jeans on Fridays. If I could live in jeans, t-shirts (especially artsy Threadless ones), sneakers, and wear my hair in a ponytail or under a Castro hat (I'm still on the hunt for just the right one ...), that is what I would do. I also miss being able to walk or ride a bike to work. Even if I lived closer, the roads are simply not set up to be able to do this.
That said, some of the best perks of working here are:
- my 0.87 contract helps me maintain sanity as a new teacher; in fact, I've even had the mental and physical energy to start back into P90x workouts
- being challenged and supported to integrate my faith into my teaching
- having families, students, and colleagues who pray for each other and help each other in very tangible ways
- administration that truly honours time teachers need to spend with family and friends
- being able to worship God freely in the school, especially when led by my students
- opportunities to teach, or at least maintain contact with, the same students for multiple years, building stronger relationships with them and their families