bus blogging, chapter two

The bus was fifteen minutes late leaving the first pickup stop on campus tonight. As I explained to the children, when water falls from the sky, it appears that drivers forget how to operate their vehicles in an efficient manner. Fifteen minutes isn't that huge a deal, except that when the bus is supposed to leave at 6:05 pm, and doesn't leave until 6:20 instead, and you've got two children who are exhausted from a long day at school, and they are both freaking starving, and you know won't be home until well after 7 pm, instead of 6:30...

Ugh.

To top it all off, all I can think about, even in my restless dreams, is work. The classroom things that I still wish to clean and organize, the students who are delightful and/or challenging, and the wonder that is working in a supervisory position with college students.

We are incredibly lucky to have a large number of students who are employed at our university-based school as student aides. I know we are fortunate in this capacity, because for the most part, they are really wonderful, and they're invaluable for all the support they provide- from daily cleaning jobs in the classroom to the individualized attention they can give to children.

But, the tricky part for me is the fine line we must walk in our supervisory role. We must give guidance about how to interact with the children (more with some than others), and we must also be clear about our expectations for the work that is their responsibility. To this end, we create a welcome packet that we hand out to everyone, both new and returning aides, and we try to be quite explicit in it. We also meet with the new ones near the beginning of the semester, and we again highlight the key points for our individual classrooms. This is of course, in addition to the face to face directions and guidance we give during their first days in our rooms.

It can be challenging, though, when we find ourselves wondering why particular actions are being taken about which we've already specifically instructed otherwise. Back in the day, I didn't feel all that much older than some of our student aides, and it could be uncomfortable acting in this supervisory role. Now? Yeah, I'm an old lady and I know how I want my classroom run. I don't mind giving directions, but I don't want to sound condescending, and repeating myself is something I don't even care to do too many times with young children, let alone college-aged folks.

So, I find myself erring on the side of sounding strict and direct, but I hope that I still convey my respect and appreciation, for their assistance keeps me from spending an extra hour cleaning up the classroom at the end of each day. And with these long-ass bus rides in our lives now, that is a good thing.


Ready to be home already,