Smarts

I'm a dancing queen again today! Yippity skippity zoo-da-di and all that happy time jazz. The Smart Board is going up in my room tomorrow.

They are awesome, wonderful, fantastic, and way cool gizmos that will enable me to do different types of things with my kids next year.

They are expensive and I work for a very impoverished school district that is barely keeping its head above the water. Mine was given to me by the local Indian Reservation. To be perfectly honest, without the aid of the Reservation, I wouldn't have a whole lot of things.

I am the department head which means I have to buy the supplies for my department of three. We have to purchase everything from student materials, teaching materials, and office materials from a whopping $425 per year. No, that was not a typo, folks. On the other hand, for the past few years the Reservation has given my department about $1800 PLUS purchased us new computers, projectors, and now the Smart Board. Each department gets a certain amount of help from them. It is like Christmas for us!

This morning I scampered off to school to put things in place for the electrician who will be running the power to my new toy. Tomorrow Santa's elves show up to install it for me. I feel positively giddy!

I pranced around thanking the custodians for getting my room done so quickly this year. My floors are all waxed, the walls freshly painted, and my furniture has been put back in place. I think I'll bring them cookies!

My co-workers tease me about how well the guys on the custodial staff and I get along. I think I'm the only one that can say my room is polished from head to toe each day. If I need something fixed, they do it immediately. If I ask them if I can borrow a tool, they bring it to my room and take care of whatever I needed it for right away.

It's the little things, I think. I always take the time to make sure they know how much I appreciate all they do. I never treat them like the hired help. I know how important their role in my school is to all of us. Those small gestures go a long long way in human relations.

Babycub was with me this morning, and while I was out of my room, a couple of the custodians came in muttering about another staff member. I don't think they saw Babycub sitting behind my desk when they said "she's nothing but a psycho bitch". I don't want them to refer to me that way - not ever!

Anyway, I'm back to dancing around in glee. I am getting a Smart Board!

Peace