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.