Care personally 

Challenge directly 

I’ve been thinking about this chart a lot lately. 

Really, I’ve been asking myself a lot of questions about this chart and how it relates to my role as a TOSA. What does this look like in all interactions: 

• as a colleague across the district?
• as a liaison to district office staff?
• as support personnel to site administrative staff?
• as an ambassador to parents?
• as a classroom teacher?

That sweet spot in the upper, right corner of the chart (“radical candor”) is crucial, in all aspects of education. But, what does that look like? 

Yesterday, a colleague asked if I would be in my office later. My reply was simply, “I will.”  

*current “office” view

It got me thinking. As the end of the first trimester comes to a close, I still don’t have an office. This is my third year in the district, and I don’t have a designated desk or cubicle. 

I’m not complaining. At the start of the year, I did have a small cubicle in the Tech Department. Only, a week later it was overrun with hundreds of Chromebooks for the district rollout. Now it houses old desktops and peripherals, like some sad Land of Misfit Toys.

But then I wondered: do I need an office? Does having an office make me a more productive TOSA? Can I be a better TOSA if I had an office? 

Honestly, I don’t know the answers to those questions. I do know that having an office might limit my visibility. Meaning, I do enjoy interacting with students and staff...and most of the relationships I’ve built were initiated by simply being present.  

After two years and one trimester of claiming the staff rooms, teacher classrooms, work rooms, and pods of five elementary sites, do I even want an office? 🤔