Assistant Registrar

Yesterday I woke up with an incredibly sore throat. Today I felt much the same so I didn't go in to work.

Yup, that's my sexy voice right there. I told my husband that I was really grateful that I'm no longer a teacher. I didn't have to make sub plans, worry about the sub actually doing what I ask, and then cleaning up whatever mess happened while I was away. I do feel a bit bad because my coworkers will have to work extra hard today since I'm out and so is one other person in the front office.

It got me thinking. I don't think many of you know what I do during a typical day. I know I definitely didn't know what the assistant registrar did when I was a teacher. Here are the things I do with various levels of frequency:

• Answer my phone - usually it's a parent asking about enrolling/withdrawing their student or how to change their address with us. It can also be other schools who need records for a student.
• Enrolling students - this can be a complicated affair
• First, the student does an online application (at home)
• If they are from out of the state, we have to have their shot records before they can enroll. Getting those records, having them checked by the nurse, communicating back to the parent what shots are still needed, and receiving proof of those new shots can take days.
• Then, they come in and I photocopy all of their papers (birth certificate, social security card, parent's ID, transcript, and proof of residency)
• I then give them a few more papers that we have to have hard copies of. While they are doing that, I check their enrollment information. Does the name match the name on the birth certificate? Is their address in our district? Are they ESL (English as a Second Language)? 
• If the student has not special programs (I'll explain that next), I send them to the counselor to get their schedule and start classes.
• If they have special programs, there's more paperwork. A student with a 504 (a disability that affects learning such as ADHD, dyslexia, or even health issues such as anxiety) has a different counselor. A Sped student (special education) will have a diagnostician who needs to be notified that they are enrolled. An ESL student has extra papers to fill out and I have to notify the Bilingual Department of the district. A student with a severe allergy has extra paperwork that gets sent to the nurse. The student then goes to the counselor to receive their schedule and start classes.
• After the student leaves, I log into a spreadsheet that the student was enrolled. I then request official records from their previous school. For students coming from out-of-state, that means a fax. For in-state students, Texas has an online program through which we can request records. It's pretty nice . . . when it works.
• Withdrawing students - this process has a lot fewer "if this, then that" going on.
• The parent or guardian fills out a paper explaining why they are withdrawing and where the student will next be enrolled (since schooling is required by law)
• I print out a lot of papers: current schedule, transcript, shot record, attendance, etc. I give a copy to the parent to help them when they enroll in the new school. 
• The other copy of those papers I keep. It is signed by me and by our associate principal.
• I also collect anything the student needs to turn-in: library books, JROTC uniforms, Chromebook. etc.
• The new school then requests records from us. We send those records along with a proof of enrollment form so that we can prove the student is not a drop-out. Unfortunately, some schools take their sweet time to request records or the parents take their time enrolling their child in the new school. Waiting for that request can take weeks or months.
• The paperwork then goes back into the student's perm folder (permanent folder) and we keep it in a room specifically for student records. We hold on to that folder until the student is 21 years old (state law).
• Requesting/Sending records - Requesting records is fast. Sending records takes time because I sometimes have to wait to receive specific records. I don't always have copies of the student's special education, ESL, or 504 records. I then ask for them from our special education department, bilingual department, or the 504 counselor. Once I have them, I have to scan them and send those documents along with the transcript, attendance, etc.Our fax machine isn't very reliable so sometimes I have to send it four or five times for it to go through.
• Hunting down where I student is enrolled - On the first day of school, if a student does not show up to school they are automatically withdrawn. Many show up in the next few days. Those who do not come in are counted as drop-outs unless we can prove otherwise. We have until the end of September to find out where these students are enrolled. That means calling parents and sometimes having to remind the parents that they are legally obligated to enroll their student in a school. A few cases I had to report to our truancy officers who then might file charges against the parent and/or student.
• Working with registrars from other schools - it can take a lot of time to figure out a student's educational history. Sometimes I receive records for a student and it notes that the student is ESL. Well, the student didn't tell me that when they enrolled so now I have to get in contact with the parent and have them do additional papers. Or I might receive records stating a student is in special education but the school did not send any special education papers. I have to contact the school to find out how I can get the records. Often a student has gone to many schools for high school so I get little pieces of the puzzle each time one of the schools send records or requests records. It's fairly common for me to call a registrar to ask them more information about a student. They can tell me that the student came from school X in October of last year and then left in February for school Y. Well school Y has no record of them. It's my job to find out if the student enrolled in any school at all and if they did, to find that school.
• Reading legal documents and understanding them - if a parent comes in with a divorce decree I have to read through it and see how the decree affects the student's education. It may say that only dad can make educational decisions. That means that I need to note that mom cannot withdraw the student. It may say that mom has sole custody and dad can only visit if mom is present. We need to know that information. This is honestly the most heartbreaking part of my job. Already I have had to read a lot of paperwork for divorces and restraining orders. It has really opened my eyes to what some of our students go home to.
• Gradebooks - I'm in charge of making sure teachers print out and submit their gradebook at the end of every grading period. For us, that's the end of this week so I hope that I'm feeling better soon!

Dang! This post got wordy. I think that explains at least 90% of what I do. Some of these duties are my responsibility alone but a lot of it is shared with the registrar and the data clerk. That's why I'm SO glad that I get along with my coworkers; I have to work with them directly every single day. If y'all have any questions about my job, just ask in the comments! Thanks for reading and I'll catch ya'll later!

-Clare G. S.

BCCC 2019!

It's time to go back in time, y'all! I want to go back one month to Bell County Comic Con.

Bell County Comic Con (BCCC) has become our summer tradition. My husband and I are on staff so we finish the school year and immediately get ready for BCCC. It can be incredibly stressful but I love it so much. The best part is all of the wonderful people who work as staff and as volunteers.

This year was a little difficult because I am in charge of registration but I had to work during pre-registration. I really wish that there could have been a way for me to be in two places at once. However, again, I have wonderful people that I work with and they were able to work pre-registration. I thought that things were going to be as smooth as last year when the doors opened on Saturday but boy was I wrong! I had about 6 people volunteering at registration and we had over 20,000 people enter the event in the first hour! Now, not all of them came through registration but it sure felt like they did! It was odd how it was just a trickle at first but then we were SLAMMED.

Doors opened at 10am and by 11am I had a full-blown panic attack. (This photo was taken after doors opened but before the deluge of attendees) I had a few saving graces: almost all of the staff showed up to help out. They left their jobs to help me and I cannot thank them enough. (Extra thanks to Johnny and Pedro who gave me much needed hugs) Also, my volunteers totally took everything in stride. They were working as a team and helping each other out. Finally, my new friend Stephanie literally held my hand through it. I told her what was happening and she got me to go over to the first aid area (which was just a few yards away from me) so that I could gather myself. The wonderful medics got me water and went back to registration to get me my medicine. It was really helpful to have an area with much fewer people. It was still noisy but I wasn't feeling like I was being trampled. Stephanie then went the extra mile and bought me a mini-cheesecake. She had to basically force me to eat it but I'm very grateful she did. I was being stubborn and I needed someone just as stubborn to tell me to take care of myself.

By 1pm, the crowd had died down quite a bit and my volunteers were able to take a lunch break. The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. I didn't have time to enjoy the convention but that's ok. I'm really proud that I was able to help some people who started their conversation with me irate but left me excited to enter the convention. My trick? Use psychology. The problem I met with the most was people who had not bought enough tickets. They were upset that they now needed to buy more and it would be at full price instead of at the discount they got by buying early. So I pulled up the cost of a full-price ticket and told them it but I knew of some discounts so I then applied the discount and told them their new total. Everyone feels good getting a discount, even if it's not as big of a discount as what they wanted.

The best part of my Saturday was meeting Bumblebee! I had asked her weeks before the con to stop by registration if she had the chance. Sure enough, she remembered my request and took time out of her day to say hi to ME. It made a very crappy day about one million times better.

Sunday is always a much easier day for registration since a majority of our attendees buy weekend passes. They pick up their badge on Saturday so Sunday they don't stop by registration; they just walk in. I was able to walk the whole convention with my friend, Brianna and I even got to chat with my bestie, Jo. It is such an awesome feeling to see what we all worked so hard to complete come together. I also loved that near the end of the day I got to meet a member of an online community I cherish, the FoEs (Fans of Epbot). Side note: if you don't read Epbot, you really should check it out.

You want to know the best part of the whole dang thing? At the end, staff decided to have "closing ceremonies" which was emceed by my spouse. He started his speech by thanking everyone. I missed the very beginning but it went like this:

My husband told a huge crowd that he loves me. ❤️ It was followed by a video recap of the convention. Unfortunately I cannot embed the video but you can find it on the Bell County Comic Con Facebook page.

Sunday evening breakdown started and I hope a new tradition started: everyone told the best part of the con and the weirdest part. It was a great time to tell stories of people paying celebrities to hit them with a metal folding chair, finding underwear and no owner, and having a dance-off with a celebrity.

Anxiety Attack

Today was a shitty Monday. I was about the leave for work when I remembered that I was getting a new ID today so I needed to wash my hair. (When I have a ponytail in a photo I look bald; that's how fine my hair is) So I literally knelt by the tub and washed my hair. Also, I woke up a late so I didn't have time for breakfast. When I looked in the pantry for a granola bar there weren't any so I told our smart speaker to add them to the list. While I was saying that my husband said something. I couldn't understand him because he was talking over "Alexa" (the speaker). I stupidly said, "I can't hear you over Alexa". That triggered the speaker to listen so I got frustrated trying to listen to my spouse while "Alexa" was talking so I shouted at the speaker, "No, never mind". Unfortunately my spouse was in another room and thought I was talking to him. I was hitting my limit with my anxiety. This was added to the stress of starting a new job (which means I feel helpless and like I'm bothering everyone all the time) and the stress of having less than a week until the Bell County Comic Con. Matthew came into the room because he could tell from my tone that my anxiety was out of control. He wisely told me that he was going to take me to work. Unfortunately I completely lost it and shouted that he needed to just let me get to work. Of course there were tears as well on my part. I told him good-bye, that I loved him, and I stormed out.

I thank God that I made it to work safely because I certainly wasn't driving my best. Things did not get much better at work for a while. You see, today was the first day that athletes and band kids could enroll online. They have to be enrolled before they can attend practice and our district is moving to completely online enrollment. This all sounds great and logical until you realize that enrollment opened at 9am this morning and we received training for it today at 2pm. I am incredibly grateful for the very patient parents who stuck with us while we figured out how to do online enrollment. It took us hours to enroll 4 students and withdraw one. Matthew was simply wonderful and brought me lunch from my favorite bakery. He even bought extra cookies for me to share with my coworkers. He's the best and having lunch with him helped me calm down.

The reason I'm feeling useless at work is my lack of access to various programs. Here's where I am:

• Skyward (our enrollment/attendance/gradebook system) - at first I could only see what I saw as a teacher. Now I can see everything a registrar needs.
• Copy machine - today was the first day I could log into it and the first day that anyone could scan.
• TREx (website that allows Texas schools to request/send records to other Texas schools) - I've had access to this since my first day. Win!
• Shared folder - I can access our shared folder but I cannot access the most important document called the "P-Drive". It's where we record notes about enrollment and withdrawal. We don't put away anyone's physical file until we have recorded what was added to it. I need to use the P-Drive daily but I cannot access it yet.

I hovered over J all morning so that I could take notes on how to do things. I was able to withdraw a few students by myself and I feel 100% confident in my ability to request records through TREx for students who are enrolling in our school. It killed me that I couldn't help parents by myself but I know that I will soon.

I now have a small stack of papers with sticky notes so that once I have access to the P-Drive I can record it and finally place their folders where they belong for the next step. From me, withdrawn students' folders go to our associate principal so that she can sign them and then the folder goes into our vault where it is filed with all of the other inactive students. Enrolled students' folders go to the head registrar, L, after we have received their records. L then inputs grades and credits and shares that information with the counselors before the student file is placed in our vault with the active students. Everything is incredibly organized which make my heart happy.

Man, this post got long. I thought that some of you would like to know what an assistant registrar does. I had no idea how detailed this job would be. There are many steps to doing something as simple as enrolling or withdrawing a student. The good news is that the more I learn about this job the more I feel like it will be a good fit for me.

-Clare G. S.

First Day as Registrar

Today has been quite a day!

You see, I wasn't sure what day I would start my job. Yesterday I e-mailed the head registrar for the school (since I'm the assistant registrar) and asked. She said I probably was starting the next day (today) but that I should contact a person in HR to check. I e-mailed the person in HR and waited but I didn't hear from him.

This morning I decided to wake up around 8. At 9 I decided to go to the grocery store and I figured I would grab a donut or two there and that would be breakfast. Well, just as I was leaving I received a phone call asking me where I was because I was supposed to be at work! Whoops! I changed out of my wookie t-shirt and shorts and got into something a little more professional. Off to work I went!

Now, let's be honest for a moment. I was not in the best mood. I didn't have breakfast and I HATE being late. I arrived and boy did things turn around. Everyone was so happy to see me! Keep in mind that I know everyone in the front office but this is the first time I will be working with them daily. They were obviously excited for me to start my job and genuinely looking forward to working with me. How lucky am I?!

I spent the first couple of hours with my coworker, J. (I don't know how any of them would feel being mentioned by name so for now we will go with just an initial) She showed me a system called TRex. Here's what I was hoping for:

Instead I got the Texas Records Exchange. Whomp whomp. Now I know how school districts communicate with each other when a student transfers into or out of their school. Unfortunately I couldn't do it myself because I do not yet have my own account. J also showed me what our grade/attendance program, Skyward, looks like from our point of view. Holy cow, there's a lot to it! As a teacher I could put in attendance and grades. There's so much more that the front office staff can do with it! Again, I can't really use it because Skyward thinks I'm still a teacher.

Since I do not yet have access to the necessary programs, I spent the afternoon doing an important but very repetitive job: purging files. You see, Texas law requires schools to keep students' records for a few years after they graduate. However, once they graduate we do not have to keep everything we have. It's mostly the academic things that have to be stored; things like photocopies of birth certificates are no longer needed. That means that today I started going through the recent graduates' files and took out the unnecessary papers (they will be shredded). I know many people would hate this kind of work but I really don't mind it. I get to listen to music and I can do this work while seated. Both of those things are luxuries in the eyes of a former teacher.

Tomorrow I will go back and continue purging files. I'm also hoping to set-up my office a bit. It has all the basics: a desk, a computer (with two monitors!), a phone, some filing cabinets, and a bookshelf. I need to take some time to move the furniture a little and to decorate. I kept all of my classroom decorations so I'm sure that I will have plenty to make the room mine. I'm really looking forward to my new job!

-Clare G. S.

New Job

I finally have an update on my job situation. But before I tell you what it is, I have to tell you the weird journey that got me here.

For over a month now I have been checking my district's website to see what new jobs were available. Although I do not want to be a teacher, I still believe that I belong in the realm of education. Around mid-May a position as assistant registrar at the same high school I've been working at for seven years opened. I decided to apply. Even though it would be a steep pay cut I would be doing data entry and organizational things (which I LOVE), I already know and get along with my coworkers, and I know that I could do this job well. I mentioned in passing to my principal that I applied for the job and he asked me to meet with the head registrar for the school. I met with her and she seemed very excited about me possibly being her co-worker. Well, the next day the principal offered me the job! Unfortunately this was during final exams so I had to focus on finishing the school year before I could consider whether to accept the offer or not.

I then received an automatic e-mail from the district with a list of job openings. There was an opening as an instructional coach at one of the middle schools. The more I read about the position, the more I wanted it! I would help other teachers hone their craft, create assessments, and analyze data. I thought I was an excellent candidate because I have experience teaching Spanish (100% of my IB students passed the IB test the last year I taught Spanish) and math (my Algebra 1 students saw huge growth this past year: 64% passed their 8th grade state test but 85% passed their Algebra 1 state test). I got some advice from a personal coach and applied. I was contacted and informed that before they did in-person interviews there would be an online interview of sorts. They sent me a couple of questions and then I made a 2-minute video with my response. A few days later I was informed that I had not been chosen to be interviewed. It was a really big blow. I didn't realize how much I wanted that job until I was told I was no longer in the running.

That same day I was e-mailed by the assistant superintendent in charge of Human Resources at the district. He told me there was a possible job with ESL and would I like more information. Well, yeah! I met with him and found out that the idea would be to assist the high school ESL teacher for half of the day and spend the other half of the day at the administrative office to help with the head of ESL of the district. That would include testing incoming students, many of whom speak Spanish with limited English abilities. It sounded great to me! I would love the opportunity to use Spanish more because I really do miss it. Well, a couple of days later I was told that there were some hiccups and the job described would not actually work with what the district needs right now.

So all of that is to say that I will be the new assistant registrar at the high school! It was a bizarre road but in the end I am really excited for this opportunity. I think the best part is that I will still be able to work with people I love. (I'm looking at you, Brianna, Lacy, and Will!) Sure, I won't be seeing them everyday but it's good to know that I have friends just upstairs when I need an ear. I'm also hoping that the lower stress will translate into a happier me. That is worth all the money in the world!

-Clare G. S.

From the other side, birth looks like death

"During that time, I was listening to a teacher who said, 'you always have to have some breakdown to have a breakthrough.' When I heard that, it made the hair on my arms stand up. It goes all the way back to birth. The baby’s not comfortable when it’s leaving it’s comfort space and it’s being pushed, through violent contractions to who knows where. So, I sorta developed that into my own saying, 'birth always looks like death from the other side.'" - Rob Seven

You know when you are little how everyone asks you, "what do you want to be when you grown up?" I would sometimes answer a singer or an actress but I always knew in my heart, for as long as I can remember, that I wanted to be a teacher. In kindergarten I wanted to be a teacher because I wanted to be a better teacher than the one I had. All the memories that remain of her are times that I was embarrassed or ashamed. In middle school I wanted to be like my math teacher, Mr. Iovinelli. He sparked my curiosity and encouraged me to ask questions. He had an odd sense of humor and treated us like rational humans, even if we weren't very rational. In high school I wanted to help people like my friends helped me in Pre-Calculus and Physics (I'm looking at you, Nicole and Timmy!) In college I wanted to spread my love of Spanish and Mathematics like all my professors did (there are too many to name here). I would even say that teaching was always my dream job. I loved teaching an intro Spanish class when I was a masters student. It fortified me in my belief that teaching was my calling. 

Teaching is all I have ever known; it's the only career I've had. Everything before teaching was a job that I knew was merely a stepping stone on my path. I've followed this course and now it's changing. 

This will be my last school year as a teacher.

I'm hoping and quite literally praying that this feeling of fear and anxiety is going to abate as I search for a new job or career. I keep telling myself that from the point-of-view of the baby, birth looks like death. I'm staring down the unknown and taking a leap. We'll see what's on the other side. There's a chance that I will find that I was always meant to be a teacher and I'll come back to it but, for now, it's not where I'm supposed to be. Here's to the future!

-Clare G. S.

Making Mistakes

Hello, my lovelies!
Long time, no see. I know, I know. I was a busy teacher and never seemed to find the time to write. Whoops. Let's move on, shall we?

The other night my husband asked me to call a student's parents because they speak Spanish and my husband does not. It was not the first time I had done that for him. Every time I ask him to give me a summary of what I need to say, some specifics like current grade, and I take a moment to write down words that I tend to forget (I'll be darned if I ever remember the way to say "to fail a test" that is common outside of Spain).

That day, like always, I made a few mistakes. It's my second language and, unfortunately, I do not get to use it very often now that I no longer teach Spanish everyday. I can't seem to get out of the habit of using the present progressive all the time (darn you, English!) but hey! I used the subjunctive correctly!

I was explaining to my husband that there is one key thing to do when speaking a second language: don't let the mistakes trip you up! I recognize a lot of the mistakes I make when speaking Spanish. My gut says that I should immediately correct my mistake but, honestly, that's a waste of time. As one of my professors pointed out, the purpose is to communicate. If the other party understands your message, you have succeeded. There is no point in trying to be perfect.

When I taught Spanish, my students were afraid to actually speak the language because they didn't want to mess-up. They wanted to put off speaking until they were certain that they would say everything perfectly. You know what happened? They never really spoke Spanish. My students who could best use the language were the ones who threw caution to the wind and made a million mistakes. I only stopped them when I could not understand them.

I need to remember that, when learning something new, it's ok to be a little reckless and make mistakes. The best way to learn is to make errors . . . lots of them! So kiddos, go and spread your wings! Try something new! It's the only way to see what you are capable of.

-Clare G. S.