Many of us have worked at other places, so we know that we've got a good situation; there wasn't grumbling about having to report to work yesterday. Plus, we've had a nice, long break, and most of us can look forward to a summer off. Throughout the day, I reflected on my pre-administrator days, when I thought that having 3 weeks off was luxurious, and I never had a summer off.
The workshops were interesting, with ideas that I could actually use. I also went to the 2 workshop session on strategic planning/visioning, which I liked, even though I know that many of our good ideas won't be implemented. But they won't be implemented because we had so many of them, not because no one cares.
That session ended with an interesting question: if the school got 10 million dollars, what should the school do with it? Ten million isn't life changing money for an institution. Our newest building, built in 2012 (I think) cost 12 million. But it's not no money either. I thought that was a fascinating way to frame the question and to help us think about priorities.
I returned home tired, but it was a good tired, not the "I hate my life" tired. I woke up several hours earlier than usual, which was another aspect of yesterday that left me tired. I thought that I would get syllabi finished, but I didn't. That turned out to be a good thing, as I made adjustments to my English 102 syllabus/approach during the day.
Today I go back to campus for a shorter day. Again, it doesn't make me angry, the way it might have done in my 20's or 30's. On the contrary, I feel lucky to be in a place that encourages us to take real time away, which leaves us refreshed and ready to do the work of the school.
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