We know learning is usually our topic, but we’re going to focus on two other “l’s” today.
On Saturday we had our informational meeting with our families to let them know about the plans for the year and par for the course, our families showed up and were exactly the role models for their kids that teachers dream of being on the same team with.
We shared. We laughed. (You can try to guess what’s going on in this picture but you may not understand unless you truly are an Indi-ED Family Member.) But at the end was where our laughs turned to love.
I won’t share specifics because I did not ask ahead of time to share their words in a public forum, but I did ask two things from our families.
Because we’re constantly striving to improve, we asked that they too paused to reflect and take some time to set a goal(s) for the year that would help make this year even better for their kids and our whole Indi-ED Family. I know by the character that they’ve already displayed and could tell by the looks on their faces that they took to heart what we were saying.
The second thing we asked of our “Veteran Families” (our families who have been at Indi-ED before) was that they shared words of encouragement or words that they wish they would’ve heard at this time last year with our incoming “Rookie Families” (our families who are at Indi-ED for their first year).
When all of the families left, I was able to read the words that they wrote and it brought me to tears.
Again, I did not ask them to write these with the intention of sharing them publicly so I am going to respect their privacy and efforts. But to hear how assured, supportive, and valued they felt reassures us that our efforts are entirely worth it because we are valued too.
On Saturday, we also spoke about the importance of positively speaking about one another in front of “our” kids in order to create the team necessary to support them in their growth. But in all reality, we don’t have to try to make this happen. We genuinely appreciate them and look forward to supporting them as they do us.
I know we were excited to start the year before Saturday, but this unforeseen and seemingly little detail was an awesome way for our teachers to start this year to feel that appreciation in return.