Great Feeling

I am disappointed in my scattered posting as of late, so I want to post, but I also feel the need to make it short and sweet because this girl has some homework to do. Today I attended a training from 10-3 with my principal, school counselor, and school secretary (whose daughter is in my class). We are part of the school PASS team which stands for Partnerships for Achieving Student Success. The purpose of our work is to collaborate with parents of color in order to initiate some school wide changes and make them feel more comfortable as active members of our school community. We met in September, but at that time, I was not part of the evening session with the parents because we were told that it would be more comfortable for the parents if they could first meet only with the principal. This time, my principal invited the rest of us to join so after book club, we had part 2 of our session and our parent group joined us from 5:30-8.

It was a fantastic evening.

Three of the parents out of 6 are parents of my students, so that makes the work we are doing seem all the more significant, but I am really excited about the discussions, the openness, and the community that we are building. We each took a turn sharing what school was like for us growing up and it was so interesting to hear their stories. I feel fortunate to be part of this group and I can tell already that we are really supporting our parents of color and creating an environment where they will feel more comfortable to take an active role in the school and the education of their children. Some of the parents who are participating are already forming groups to bring other parents in on the action which is really great!

As soon as I sat down, I knew I recognized one of the moms, but I wasn't sure where I knew her from. When we introduced ourselves, I told her that and she mentioned that she works at The Container Store. She was the woman who helped us create our awesome ELFA closets. LOVE HER (and the super organized closets!). Just goes to show that you always have to conduct yourself well because you never know when a stranger will become someone you encounter in a different way!