Expectations

Tonight I went to volunteer orientation at GRACE House. It is the homeless shelter in Grand Rapids that is housed in one of the local churches. It's sort of a "make shift" shelter that's been in this "temporary" state for about 4 years now. I'm planning on doing two evening (4:45-9) shifts a month -at least that's what I'm able to actually commit to. I'm looking forward to it. I really want to do this and get involved a bit more here.

I ordered my camera today!! I hopped onto Amazon today and found that the price went up a dollar, so I thought -crap!! I'd better get that sucker ordered! I should get it the early part of next week. Right in time for Christmas! YAY! Merry Christmas to me!!! :) I was going to wait until after the lessons this week in my online photography class (they are about how to choose a camera), but I pretty much already knew what I wanted, so I just went ahead and bought it. I'm pretty happy about it though. I cannot wait!!!

So...I have to make a decision on whether to stay here or not next year. I will be thinking of this a lot over the next few months. I'm hoping I can get my contract negotiated well and my salary can see a bump...I know the coop can afford it- I see the budget, I know what the individual district budgets are...I know they can afford to give me a good bump -a very good bump and it won't affect any of their budgets or anything because I know how much money is floating around not being used because of the absence of some other things. Well....we will see.

On another subject, but still related to work, I've decided to put into the principals' laps a scheduled meeting with me, them, and their special ed staff. I've described it as a "coffee with the coordinator" type of meeting where it's not a mandatory or systems based meeting (like child find, or IEP, etc), but just a scheduled time each month they can pick my brain or just bitch -get some frustration off their chest and maybe feel like they are being listened to. I'm surprised at the overwhelming response I've gotten from principals!! All of my Monday mornings are now booked every month and more to come. That is just incredibly awesome and I'm more than happy to provide this opportunity for them. It will also allow me to get into their building and maintain a relationship with the teachers and principals. Maybe some of the teachers' frustrations about regular ed teachers dumping kids into their classrooms or paras being incompetent can get communicated to the principal in this kind of atmosphere -because some of the teachers are reluctant to "cause waves" so maybe if I create a forum or a venue for them to voice their frustrations they can feel less threatened and get some of these things they complain to me about (but mostly each other) out into the open.

That makes me think....I've got to get on the ball and get some of my leadership books read. I've been putting that off like CRAZY!!! No time like the present!!

Well, that's all tonight. Thanks for reading and thanks for clicking on the ads on the page. I really appreciate your visit here. :-)