TIME is a 4-letter word.

TIME. I don't understand yet how other administrators handle TIME. Time to blog, tweet, post about the happenings of the day. I barely have time to participate in the happenings of the day, let alone share it on social media!

However, I hope to gain understanding as I continue to move through the school year. I don't want to give up. I hope I don't give up. I guess this dilemma is like most anything else. It takes TIME to learn how to manage my TIME so I will have TIME to share with others.

So, more than this, here's the deal: Teachers at my school want to learn about how to use blogging with their students. They want to tweet the moments of enlightenment that spark their students to do more, risk more, achieve more. I have no TIME to worry about the lack of TIME I have. My TIME will be spent with these teachers, helping them learn the benefits of social media in the classroom and helping them learn to manage their TIME.

TIME to begin.

The New School Year began before I was ready!

Does the school year really ever end? Not really, not for teachers. Every year I taught in the classroom I spent the majority of my summer reading educational books, attending conferences and/or workshops, drawing classroom layout plans to tweak the efficiency of my classroom, and planning for the next school year. And now I've moved in to administration which means I have less official time off and I fight myself to actually be "off"--truly vacationing instead of planning for school to start. It's a losing battle.

So, I embrace it. This is how I prepared for the teachers', students', and bus drivers' return to school:

1.  TEACHERS
     I always like to start the school year by giving the teachers and staff a little something, often with an uplifting message attached. Two years ago I bought highlighters and added a card that read, "You're a highlight of our school!"

Last year I passed out ibuprofen! (A tongue in cheek thing since we were beginning our 1-to-1 device initiative.)

    This year, our principal decided to order a box of books for each teacher! That was such a great gift I didn't have to worry with anything else, although I had made red candy melts-coated pretzels into little apple treats.

Got the idea from a Pinterest post here.

Although mine are not as fancy I am still pretty proud of myself for getting them done!

2. STUDENTS
    I concentrate on the attitude I exude as well as the message I want to give children the first days of school. And recently in church I learned a new principle from my pastor that I want to put on a poster to display in my office:

"Every contact leaves a trace." Locard's Exchange Principle--it's basis is forensic, yes, but the pastor  expanded it's meaning to help me and others remember that everything we say or do when relating to people will leave some sort of impression. We need to be sure it's a positive one. (No, haven't made the poster yet, but I am getting closer to it! Next post will show you why it has taken a while to get this part done.)

3. BUS DRIVERS
    Since I'm in charge of handling discipline issues that arise on the bus, I have frequent contact with the drivers. From the beginning I wanted them to know I would support them always. I put a lot of effort in getting my point across to the students and parents,  the people who really needed to understand this. At the same time, I committed to show my appreciation to the drivers with little treats from time to time. To begin the year their treat will be an adaptation on this…

Thanks to Parties & Patterns for this idea!

My treats were more simply stated, "Here's to a NUTTER great year!" taped to the lids of cups of mini nutter butters. I also used mini GOlden Oreos and added, "Here's to a GOLDEN year ahead!" I liked this one because our school's mascot is the Golden Eagle.

Well, I hope my little treats gave each person a sweet reminder that I care for each one of them and hope their year is fulfilling.