Thursday, September 30, 2010

What's in your office?


I was approached by Mr. Lammers, a fourth grade teacher in my building, about helping respond to his students' "talk back" journals. What an exciting thing to participate in! Not only can I learn a little bit about the fourth graders in his class, but I get to respond to their questions. Without hesitation...I said YES!

The prompt they were given was "If you could ask the Assistant Principal any question, what would it be?". I have spent the last few evenings reading and responding to their questions. Some of the questions have been pretty typical, such as "What is your favorite place to vacation?", "How long has Sherwood been a school?", "Where were you before you came to Sherwood?", and the list goes on. One question, however, that really caught my attention was about my office. This student explained in their letter that they had never visited my office, but wondered what was in it. Would I have pictures of kids in my office and/or pictures of my family? This really made me think. What does my office say about who I am as an administrator and as a person. So I started looking around.

The first thing that caught my eye is a large picture hanging on my wall of 2 giraffes. One is a baby giraffe laying on the ground with his head up. The other giraffe is coming from the top of the picture and it is kissing the head of the baby giraffe. Next to this picture are two signs. One says "Contagious Enthusiasm" and the other says"Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away."

On one of my walls, I noticed pictures that students have made for me. One is from a 2nd grader named Steven. He made a picture of red flowers and the sunshine with a watering can watering the flowers. Janie, another 2nd grader, drew a picture of me that has hearts all around it (it's quite good I might add...I made it my Twitter profile pic).

On my door, I have pictures of students from a lesson that I taught last year as a special guest teacher. The students are engaged in the activity and having fun! There is also a picture on my door of me with one of my 2nd grade friends, Devin. On the first day of school, Devin brought in the most beautiful, gigantic sandwich I have ever seen! I made a big deal over this sandwich and how delicious it looked. The next day, Devin packed me a lunch with the most beautiful, gigantic sandwich in it! We had lunch together that day...everyone was jealous of our sandwiches!

As I continue the journey through my office, I notice pictures of my husband, friends of mine, and my family around my office. Reminding me of my life outside of Sherwood and things that are important to me. There is also a smattering of UK Wildcat paraphernalia and frogs of all sizes (even one in a UK shirt!). I'm a die hard Wildcat alumni (yes...I bleed blue) and one of my favorite philosophies is EAT THAT FROG!

As I look around my office, I'm noticing that all of these things I have placed in my office (as randomly as some may appear) help to paint the picture of who I am as a person, wife, daughter, sister, teacher, learner, friend, and administrator.

So, this question, that seemed so simple from the mind of a 4th grader, really caused some deep reflection on who I am. I'm proud to say that my office is a direct reflection of EXACTLY what I want to be!

So my question to you is...what's in your office?





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