5 weeks since the last lesson logged

5 learning weeks since the prek graduation, and the final doorclosing of "  MY"   center. each passing week I have observed more about the "  new"work place. my adaptation into the workplace. learning about my fellow coworkers. the dynamics of the workers. their skill level and ability to be teachers. Skills and ideas from my new boss. changing pecking order from old boss and fellow directors. 
My own learning curve to just go with the flow, to adjust my own standards to fit in. to just survive!! or so it feels.

Things my staff, the staff we finally had that was what we as a company had wanted. followed the guidelines set up by the company that is to say. well obviously we were above reproach. 

Our/my staff was in dress code daily. none of this so popular fluorescent undershirts hanging out, flip flops, and funny looking belts with skulls on them. 

There's constant eating in front of the children, of fast foods, desserts brought from home, I myself even found myself in the supply closet eating movie popcorn!!!

  cell phone usage is rampant! and the center phone is also in great demand for personal calls. one staff member today actually had a phone in each ear today. All day long someone is on the phone!!
so the other day I lowered my standards, my rules, and used the center phone to call a friend while the kids worked in centers. The supervisor above me came through the room and asked who I was speaking to. I said a friend & I would be off right away. and I was. As she walked back through she picked up the phone and took it to the front office with her. I would have done the same.

I don't hold it against her. yet the rules are not the same for all. there are the cigarette smokers. one especially takes a 20 minute smoke break every hour! often with the boss. so why don't we all get 20 minutes each hour.
of course this is also the staff who yells at the boss whenever she is reprimanded.
once a loud screaming match broke out over the employee not tending to a crying child, but ignoring her.
the argument rumbled forth from the classroom. I went for the assistant director,which is how we did it at our center. we backed each other. the assistant director here listened for a brief second and loudly proclaimed "   I'm not getting in the middle of that!"   and off she walked.
Ok. am I just a weenie? or hopelessly outdated as a supervisor? they kissed and made up, and the employee later hissed at me her outburst was not insubordination.
someone had obviously told her I had said i considered this insubordination. a write up or fire-able offense if I was in charge. what? am I supposed to be afraid of you??
I am frustrated. I came here to learn what I was doing wrong to lose my center. and I find a number of things that i had already handled and gotten in check at my center.
ridding myself of my old crew. lovable people all. but not the best choice for the job.  the longevity of the staff here. well it is because many do as they please. and as long as they get their way, they work....so to speak.
so next time I think I will write about the original staff at my long gone center. they are really very similar. I feel I am really back to square one!!

Saturday at last

Hectic week at the new center. A Pre K Graduation was set for Friday. I had already had mine at the "old" center. and really didn't see the need to attend. Especially since I have only been the "new" Pre K Lead since May 25th. The credit for all the learning that has gone on certainly doesn't fall into my court. but I want to continue to find my place at the new center. so there I was after a full day at the old empty center.
The production was quite adorable. there was a DJ {the director's hubby. he really is a jack of all trades & has quite a sound system to boot! I love how he is supportive of his wives career}. there were Many store bought banners and signs especially for a graduation. The children had carnations pinned to their gowns & tassels hanging jauntily from their caps.
The young teachers adorably dressed in summer finery, glad no doubt to be out of the uniform we must wear daily. A nice turn out by families. one mother, I am assuming a hair dresser by trade, dragged from her seat to help get hair ready for the big production. And I am talking children's hair! there was a curling iron, & pomade, bobby pins & hair spray. I am not sure if she carried these items with her, but I do know she was a great sport about helping out. It was a wonderful success. I kept thinking how I must use some of these ideas for "our" next graduation. Only to be brought up short when remembering, this is now MY graduation. there is no center that is under my guidance any longer.
I am sure I was feeling blue because I had spent the day at the old center. which is how I had started the week. for moving day finally arrived.
Monday had only been an hours worth while a manager for the moving company walked through to see what would be involved in the move. My very competent assistant director had assembled & labeled Piles of supplies and treasures that were to go to the different sister centers. so that was easy to see what would go where.
Friday was the actual pack and go. The movers were very professional. Very pleasant. and speedy. I had been told it was to be an 8 hour job. but it was done in a little over 4 hours. and the 4 hours flew.
I had phoned another director early in the a.m. to ask that she send out a group email alerting centers today was the day to expect things arriving. As their,{ the other centers}, busy summer programs are progressing my center closing is but a blip on their radars. But a truck arriving with things to "put away" well that is a major disruption ~ especially on a Friday! I wanted to send fair warning. Yet i hear tell, some were still surprised and not happy for the arrival of things. Because especially with furniture, oh hell, even the toys, need a new assigned spot. And when you already have things set up a certain way, and the kids are all there in full force, well.... just another headache. I also phoned my DM to let her know things were moving along and to ask about the copy machine pick up. That has been a crazy ongoing saga. all I can say is avoid the RICOH company at all costs. Lousey product and crap customer service.
Amazingly another pickup was scheduled, and I said I would believe it when I saw it go out the door. It did at last get picked up. but not before I had some fun with a photo page in mind for my never ending scrapbook. I took pictures of the copy machine and I engaged in one finally battle. just silly stuff. And then the gentleman who picked up the machine was a good sport and posed with it with a thumbs up sign!
So finally I was all alone in an empty building. couple left over things I am sure headed for the scrap pile if no daycare friends can get them this week end. I swept all the floors. And as I was preparing to leave two women came to the door begging to see the building. Excited with dreams and ideas for a "new" center. Their new center. The soon to be "director"~ finishing all her classes~ has a bright untarnished vision. and her "Passion". the newbees always call it a "passion". I didn't have the heart to tell her that the corporate centers are barely making it, and that Passionate mom & pop centers are folding at a rapid rate. I didn't bring up insurance, and taxes, and licensing fees, supplies and food costs. trying to find decent teachers. blah, blah, blah.
I let her have her passion. You go girl. You go.

Monday. 
Again. Funny how that happens.

Last Friday was payday. I was not paid correctly. I was shorted an entire week. I have gone into paycheck limbo. You see, directors do not clock in. 
Groupleaders do. IF.....

you are in the computer. I am not.

I am still in between centers. Sure I am in the classroom. Unless something needs handled at the "old" center.
A tomb of silence with all the equipment still awaiting the moving man to distribute it, the signs taken down that had proclaimed our lineage with our sister centers.
Weeds popping up at an alarming rate. and the "roll off" sitting largely in the unused parking lot beckoning all to toss a load or two of large item trash.

I know. cause I had to go there today to await the "moving man" pre nup. he comes to see how much will need to be moved. then this friday he will send his crew to move it and distribute.

I was told this will take 8 hours.

the "old" center closed for business on May 13th.
the last day any staff was there was May 20th.
I sat there alone waiting copy machine pick up and moving pre nup for two days. Neither came!

So off I went to the new center.
now almost a month later things are wrapping up.

I feel ripped anew.


it is hard to go from center director to group lead. You still want to take over. you see things that "your center" didn't do and want this center not to do it either!!

my director is wonderful. Her staff all work well together. and yet there I am the odd man out.  they are all kind and friendly. some more so than others. but I am a stranger who keeps trying to change the system.
and really that is not my place.


one example and then I will wrap it up for the evening.


With times financially tight, many centers are doing their own "house keeping". Our center did it 5 days a week. we didn't have janitorial at all.
The new center has staff "house keeping" on Mondays & thursdays.
I dread it. cause I am mopping and cleaning and trying to get it down before I miss my ride home!
today I decide I will take my remaining 10 kids to the School Age room 15 minutes before my shift ends. My room is large and the main room that everyone must walk through to pick up and drop off.
my director , when asked about moving the kids, suggested I have the children help me clean!
at my old center, we never had the children clean! to me it seems almost cinderellaish!
"here, pay your tuition, and let me put your child to work!"
there is of course the school of thought that it is helping the children to be self sufficient. 
REALLY? mopping & vacuuming and scrubbing the communal toilets? when you are 4 years old.


for now I sat them down with quiet toys/centers, while I cleaned and put up wet floor signs as parents walked through my room to get their children.
some parents so apologetic as the minced across the wet floor.
others scowling as they loudly announced to Jr. to be careful, the floor is slippery!! 


tonight I am tired. I will figure this out. I will.

the Dreaded Monday Tuesday

the once dreaded Monday Tuesday, when a day off caused almost more problems than it was worth. But in the classroom it was not nearly as bad as when I was wearing a different hat. With different duties.

I must continue to remind myself that I am the new kid on the block going on day 4, where the next"newest" employee has been there "only" 3 years. this is one of the reasons I chose this center to go to when my position was eliminated. I wanted to see my director's style. how she was able to get it all done. and have such long term staff. she is also very knowledgeable in the field and famous among the other directors for getting things done, and coming up with different and easier ways to do things.

There were two other centers that were a possibility for me to join.But this is the one I chose. 
As is my way, I do not fit in very well at all. some of it I can blame on still seeing many things through a directors eyes. but most of it must be blamed on my basic personality. For I am~~~ An Acquired taste.

For instance, I do not like that staff is constantly snacking on cakes, and tasty bits of things they have all brought in for each other......IN FRONT OF THE CHILDREN! A two edged sword there. Obviously the staff all like one another and enjoy sharing and cooking for one another. But the company and the food program both have dozens of "rules" in place and reasons for not doing these things.
It is almost like the employee I had who would actually bring porkchops from her dinner the night before, in her purse! So she could eat the meal in the classroom. she often "shared" with the children. which is worse than eating in front of them. Especially since these were toddlers! That staff member would not sign out to eat. she wanted her chop and to be paid while eating it!!!!

all in the column called picking your battles at the "new center". Sure you have been here 10 years. but you follow very few rules.
On the plus side, I see my director getting in and getting things done. She doesn't wait around. she does it... of course I could blame the difference in our ages. she was born the year I graduated high school! She is a go getter type personality. 
I do admire her ability to mop up the water a negligent teacher didn't notice was pouring onto the floor because a pre schooler plugged the sink.
No, had that been me as director, the teacher would've been a mopping and scrubbing!The teacher being the one who dropped the supervision ball! yet perhaps I am splitting hairs.
The director speaks to all and asks questions. she waits for the answer. she stood on my sink counter to play a silly joke on an employee today/ The Director in me saw it as horse play. Yet, I also envied the easy going personality that it came from!

So I continue to learn and observe. Hoping to learn some new tricks. Hoping to learn more about myself as a supervisor. A human being. 
I must remind myself daily, I am new here. and I can not just come in and demand it my way. the by the rules way. I am not here to change anyone but myself. to LEARN something helpful to myself.

Monday night already!

Already I begin to feel like the child whose weekend has flown away much too quickly! And it was a 3 day week end no less!! It is almost time to return to the work week. A whole different work week than I am accustom to. Because I am no longer the head of a child care center, but a very important cog in the daycare machinery! I am the group leader to a group of almost 20 children in transition. Just as I am in transition. so we are learning together!


The children are soon to be Kindergartners. Some at the year round school have only a matter of weeks. Some not until August when the "traditional" year starts up. Most of the class will be graduating to the "Schoolage" classroom. So as their "new" teacher; I will be fleeting in their lives. I would like to make it fun for them.

I was informed on Friday that I am to get them ready for the PreK graduation ceremony that will be held in a scant week and a half.
I have been there now 3 days.
I am just barely matching names to faces.
I am unsure of what they know.
But we will practice our songs and poems several times a day, and just hope for the best~


This is a different kind of pressure than being the director of a childcare. There are still tasks to do. but on a different scale. with more positive and easy to see results.


At the end of the day I am physically tired, and it is a good tired. As apposed to the mental exhaustion that just never seemed to go away as the director of a center.
so my Monday night jitters are just the rattlings of getting used to a new position, and a new routine.