As I approached my office door on Thursday morning, I saw it - the large, over sized envelope from our district HR dept - it was my teacher's contracts. I know many administrators who quickly hand over the envelope to their secretary never to see it again. Not me.
Every year I take the time to hand deliver the contracts to my teachers. As I walked the building - and I mean walked the building, I found myself reflecting on just how this practice came about. Back in the day when I was interning, my mentor delegated this task to me. I absolutely loved it. I was out of the office and into the classrooms. love. pure love.
From that year on, I've always made it a point to hand deliver my contracts. In fact, I really thought nothing about it until Thursday.
Of course, there were smiles as the contracts passed from my hands to theirs. There were even a few jokes, but what really got me was what happened after school.
A teacher, a very tenured teacher, stopped and thanked me for hand delivering her the contract. The next sentence really got me, "No one's ever done that for me before. " No one?? Seriously? To paraphrase, the simple action made her feel very wanted, welcome and ready for the new year.
All because I use it as a time to get out of the office. There's so much more to it than my simple brain break.
** I get to see every single teacher in the building within a 20 minutes time span. That's some good face time!
** In addition, I get to see the instruction in every classroom and interact with students.
** The students see me in their world interacting positively with their teacher.
** And apparently, it makes me teachers feel wanted and, above all, loved.
In reflecting back to my internship days, I'm certain my mentor knew the outcome would positively impact teacher's lives. I just had to learn the lesson myself.
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