In educational work, pace is always a busy one. Our work is not possible in isolation and it gets done well in community with others. As educators, we have professional connections between classrooms, across schools, in other provinces even other countries from whom we learn and with whom we share. Yet, in the everyday busyness of our work day, it is the people in our buildings such as in support functions who are also key partners.
Colleagues Behind The Scenes
Educational work whether in schools, or between schools doesn’t go on smoothly by itself. There are many people in our offices who work behind the scenes both efficiently and diligently to support the work that we do.
We may be in the the public eye thanks to our social media presence and followers, or conference attendance etc. but the people behind the scenes, who keep the work flowing smoothly are the glue, the fulcrum, the heartbeat of moving things forward.
After all, with one online system talking to another, the correct information in its place and the appropriate boxes checked off are important details so that educational services can reach students. With all the deadlines that swirl in our work, where would we be if we were on our own? I’d drop more than a thing or two, I am sure.
Also these colleagues are the ones in our educational spaces to whom students go to seek information and support.
Leave It With Me
Some sentences said in passing become a special gift.
So it is with my colleague whom I had met five years ago online and later in person.
I may be running from one school to another and then for day, work at various other locations before returning to the office and I stop by with a question or to think through a problem…
When she says “leave it with me”, my slumped shoulders straighten and I know that in a matter of minutes the process will have begun or a few days things will be sorted out.
How Can I Thank You?
When I think of the many people who make my day easier, like you, I want to thank them.
I can’t carve something beautiful or bake something delicious for all the people who’ve smoothened out wrinkles in my work life.
But I can write.
So here is a huge thank you to all the wonderful colleagues who do so many things everyday: welcome students and families into our schools, connect the dots between different data bases, register participants for regional workshops, book translators for family-teacher meetings, check in about meal choices, bridge across work sites etc.
In your school and mine, there are many people who do many things and their work supports ours.
So here’s my wish, Fellow Traveller: I hope you also have someone in your work life who says “leave it with me”.
Please share this piece with them.
Please tell them I said hi.
With You, In Solidarity
Rashmee Karnad-Jani
