Yesterday was an eventful day at the office and after work. I had been dreading yesterday because of the feedback exercise we were doing, but it turned out not to be that bad. Let's start from the beginning though.
The morning was pretty normal with PT in Copley (it finally feels like winter here!) and working group (I'm in charge of Behavior for my school) and IJ before lunch. We had lunch and then came back for three and a half hours of team time, which is an exuberant amount.
PAIRS feedback is basically like speed dating for feedback. You sit with a partner for eight minutes. Four of those are you giving them positive and negative feedback. During that four minutes, they have to say back what they heard so that you can make sure they understood what you were saying. Then, you switch and they give you feedback for four minutes. You do it for each person on the team so by the end, you've received feedback from eleven different people. It literally sounds like my worst nightmare, but it turned out to not be THAT bad. People ended up being really positive, at least with me, and they ended up saying a lot of the same things for areas of improvement. I was really nervous to give and receive feedback to Erica because I respect her a lot and I knew that whatever improvements she said I should work on, I would take really personally. She was like my fourth person and the feedback she gave me was stuff I knew about myself. She even started by saying "I think you know this already...." You're probably wondering what I could POSSIBLY have to work on since I'm perfect (hahahahahah I wish!), but APPARENTLY I need to voice my frustrations more often instead of bottling them up. Shocking, right? Me, a person who hates confrontation and wants everyone to like her, bottling up her frustrations and avoiding confrontation? That's the truth.
Anyways, it went relatively well. I was expecting to cry because I cry at commercials, so something like this was bound to just set me off, but it actually wasn't too horrible. No one likes hearing that they aren't perfect, but it could have been worse. I will definitely keep it in mind because I know it's something I need to work on and I think everyone wants to grow and learn, so this was a good activity.
After PAIRS, I was so tired from being so nervous, but we had the Tobin's Community Meeting and then the Ugly Sweater party. Community Meetings take place once a month and every team is assigned a month to put them on. They share pictures, videos and funny stories about their school and students, as well as any Joys, Ripples, and Appreciations they have. They are a ton of fun and the stories are great. Chelsea serves at the Tobin, so this was her month to go. It's one of my favorite things about Fridays because you get a chance to see other schools and hear about all of the great things happening there.
The night ended with an Ugly Sweater Party at Pat and Rachel's. Rachel, Megan, and I all have December birthdays. Rachel's is tomorrow and Megan's is the 28th, so it was an Ugly Sweater party for our birthdays. I didn't have an ugly sweater, but seeing what everyone else was wearing was so funny. Some people had the traditional Christmas sweaters with reindeer, Santa and bells, but other people had ones with like unicorns and crazy stuff. It was great. Tonight we're going out to some bar to continue the celebration. It was definitely not my idea to have this extravagant birthday weekend. Rachel Tran is the one to blame for that. I told her that we are not getting sung to and I just want it to be another night out. Wednesday is my birthday and the center of attention can be on me then, but not at a bar or for a whole weekend. Michelle is coming, which will be really fun to see her. I haven't seen her in months and I miss her. Plus, I want her to meet all of my CY friends. It should be a fun night overall and I'm excited.
I hope everyone gets a chance to celebrate the holiday season a little bit this weekend!! It's finally gotten cold in Boston and it definitely feels like Christmas!
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