Questions? Comments? Praise? October 31, 2010

I send email updates to parents about every two weeks or so (more often if necessary) about what’s going on in class and what’s coming up and at the end of my email, I always write, “Please don’t hesitate to contact me with questions or concerns.”   I was in Starbucks on Friday when I noticed a sign soliciting “Questions?  Comments?  Praise?” and it made me think about my own job.

Every so often (about once in a blue moon perhaps), I get a positive note from a parent. It’s not that I get tons of negative feedback; it’s just that if there’s nothing they want to complain about, they don’t contact me. I guess that’s human nature. What I’m wondering is if I should add something about praise or kudos to the line about questions or concerns. It’s not that I need praise from parents, but I would like to know if what they are seeing at home as far as work their kids are doing seems worthwhile and important. I’d like to know if the updates are appreciated. I’d like to know if all the communication I work hard to make happen is necessary.

I work hard at what I do, as do most working people, and few of us get praise in the form of raises or bonuses or pats on the back from our bosses or coworkers. At my school, we have a couple of things we try to do to celebrate our accomplishments, but we don’t do a very good job. When our colleagues go above and beyond, we have the opportunity to fill out Lightning Bolts, which are certificates of appreciation, and then each month at a staff meeting, names of people who received Lightning Bolts are put into a pot and drawn out randomly for small prizes that have been donated. The list of all of the people who were recognized is then sent to the entire staff via email. It’s become a big pain in the neck, frankly. The idea behind it was to recognize and celebrate colleagues who go above and beyond, but it’s turned into just recognizing people for doing the job they get paid to do or for just being in the right spot at the right time. For example, I received a Lightning Bolt last year because when a coworker fainted while I was standing there, I picked up the phone and called 911 and made sure my coworker got what she needed. Really? I need to be recognized for that? What else was I going to do? People get Lightning Bolts for attending sporting events and bringing coffee to their friends/office mates. They get them for a variety of reasons that don’t have anything to do with going above and beyond their job description.

Teachers in my building are weary of being called out as a group for the sins of a few. We are expected to post grades on a weekly basis so that academic eligibility can be determined. Each week, there are a handful of folks who do not post their grades, which means the whole staff gets an email about posting grades. We are also expected to keep our websites updated. Most teachers do this, but there are a few who don’t, which causes the mass email to go out to tell all of us to keep our websites updated. No one likes to be told he or she hasn’t done the job when he or she has, in fact, done the job.

I am not proposing that people who post their grades weekly like they are supposed to receive a Lightning Bolt. I would like it if those folks were the only ones who were called out about what they’re doing wrong, but they’re not really who I’m talking about it this post.  I do think that people who have great websites should be recognized.  People who have solid learning objectives for their lessons ought to be recognized as well.  Folks whose classes continue to do well on standardized tests should be recognized.  People who serve on committees deserve recognition.  I’m sure we can come up with many other reasons to give Lightning Bolts.  I will be filling some out this week for my coworkers who truly go above and beyond.  Who better to know that than fellow teachers?

Questions?  Comments?  Praise?

Being a grandmother October 2, 2010

It’s hard to believe that back in February, my son told me I was going to be a grandmother and now it’s October, and I am a grandmother.  It seems like yesterday and forever ago since that day in February, and I don’t know how time is able to work that way, but it does.  Once they (my son and daughter-in-law) knew the baby was a boy, the question became, “What’s his name?”  That was a constant roller coaster–they chose names we liked and names we didn’t like, but they finally settled on Nolan Jackson, a name we all love.  So  now he’s here, and we’re all getting to know him, and life as we knew it before has changed.  It’s amazing that a 7-pound baby can have such an impact!

Anyway, the big question now is, what am I, the paternal grandmother, going to be called?  I can’t be “Gramma.”  It’s not that I don’t want to be a grandmother; of course I’m ready for that part of my life.  It’s just that I had a Gramma for 44 years, and she was “Gramma” to pretty much everyone who knew her.  I’m just not ready to take her name and position in the family.  And I don’t want to be “Gramma Tricia” because “Tricia” is pretty hard for a child to pronounce.  The last thing I want is for my grandson to struggle pronouncing my name!  Then he’d come up with something else — some other way to say it — and I guess we’d just go with that.  For instance, my good friend is called “Humma” by her grandson who couldn’t quite get “Gramma” out when he was first starting to talk.  The fact is that I’ll answer (and probably come running!) to whatever he decides to call me, but I also want to have some way to identify myself, a name that shows I’m his grandmother, you know?  At first I thought I might like to be called “Gigi.”  I heard it on some program and thought it sounded like something a kid could say easily enough and something that could be a grandmother’s title.  Jason, however, hated it and said he didn’t think it sounded “gramma-y” enough.  Right now, we’re trying out “Nonna,” which is Italian for grandmother.  We’ll see how that goes.