Category Archives: Faculty

Lemonade from Lemons

Posted on by
Yesterday, I had a not so great interaction with a student, which left me feeling really bad and it ended up consuming my entire night-yes, I woke up at 2 a.m. thinking about this kid. Why? Oh, why do we have to care so much? Anyway, every year I inevitably have a couple interactions with students that I wish could have gone better, which is par for the course when you work with people, especially teenagers. Many years ago, I realized one way to counteract the way these unfortunate interactions make me feel is to write positive emails to parents of students with which I’ve had great interactions. Fortunately, these positive interactions way out number the negative ones, like by 1000%! Here is a sampling of a few emails I sent this morning:

Dear Mr. and Mrs __________, 
Good morning! I’m writing just to let you know that it has been an absolute pleasure working with _________ this year. He is a great kid! _________ is a joy to be around; he always listens attentively and consistently contributes to our classroom community. I am so happy that he is in my class! 
Have a wonderful day and God bless!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Cutright
Dear Mr. and Mrs. ___________,

I just want to send a quick note to acknowledge what a great kid you have. I am ________’s English teacher this year, and I feel very lucky to have her in my class. I went to England with ____________ a couple of summers ago and I see how she positively influenced her peers during that trip. I get to see another side of her in the classroom. ___________ is hard-working and interested in learning. She really is a joy to be around!
I hope you have a wonderful day.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Cutright
When the time is right, I am going to revisit the conversation I had with the student of yesterday and try again. In the meantime, I do feel better. What do you do when you have a not so awesome interaction with another human?

True Life: I Actually Like Retreats.

Posted on by
I have a love-hate relationship with retreats.

As a highschool student I hated retreats. As a high school campus minister who ran the retreats, I hated them. However, as a Carondelet faculty member, I love retreats.

Last year I dabbled in retreats by attending Alpha and Shalom. This year I went big….Alpha, Kairos, and then Shalom. (By the way, this was my first time every participating in Kairos and I wear my Kai-rock with pride) Each retreat was a unique experience. All of them gave me the opportunity to interact with students and faculty members in a way that created connection.

I led small groups on each retreat and had the privilege of getting to learn more about our students in a more relaxed environment. Kairos and Shalom really gave me an opportunity to sit and talk with fellow faculty members. It was legitimately fun to be able to laugh, eat, and share stories with faculty members outside of my department. It seemed on Kairos and Shalom that faculty members needed the retreat just as much as the students. Just as we hope the students relax and create bonds on the retreats, I hope that we, as a faculty, can relax and create bonds with one another.

Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are. – Chinese Proverb