Team work at its finest...

In my previous post, I discussed a situation where one of teacher is making the decision to tell her students about her cancer diagnosis.  This is a personal decision, and as stated in that post, the verdict can go either way.  The part that everyone does seem to agree on is that a team approach is the best method to handling this situation and others similar in nature.  Processing this situation and getting ready to tackle this challenge has me thinking about my tip for teachers, staff and all school personnel.

Working together as a team.

No one teacher or person works in a vacuum in their classroom by themselves.  We all have a team of people that we rely on to help make our jobs easier or a little less painful.  These people include the lunch ladies, the custodians, and the secretaries (let's get real--they have all the real secrets and knowledge of the working of the school).  At the end of the day, we vent or cry or celebrate (truly depending on how successful or awful the days activities were).  Staff need to remember that it is okay to lean on these teammates in our time of crisis and need and when we need that little nudge to make it through a bad day.  The teacher facing a new cancer diagnosis is going to need support through these trying times.  It would be easier in a building where relationships are established and bonds forged, but remember half our staff are new to this building and this teacher is one of those staff.    Those deep rooted relationships are not already in place.  The people in our school buildings become our sounding boards, our counselors, our family, and this will likely be no exception.  This middle school community is going to have to rally around one of our own early and often, and I am sure that we are ready to do so.  That is what makes us exceptional at our job.  It is the amount of dedication that we not only delivery to our students on a daily basis, but to the staff that we spend countless waking hours with as well. Our team, our support, our family!