From Dragonfly: The Long and Short of It

It's been a good couple days at work. After not having a co-tutor since I was reassigned to a new teacher and classroom, a new woman started this week in her probationary period. When I was tutoring alone, it was nearly impossible to adequately meet the needs of all the students and to effectively get grading done and tracked timely. Putting the student's needs first often meant taking work back to my unit to grade or going several days with piles of assignments needing grading. But now, for two whole days, there are two of us helping students AND getting the grading done. At the end of each day, the "in" boxes are empty and the trays with graded assignments to go back to students are full. It is such satisfaction to see this change.

Plus, my new co-tutor is really nice, interesting, and intelligent. I'm going to call her Tall, because she is tall, like really, really tall. She is also thin. We make quite the team, with me at a mere 5' tall and overweight, and her tall, skinny body. I joked that we are the "long and short of it." It's true. Tall has wonderful ideas for the class and is really interested in helping the students succeed.

Tall was diagnosed with breast cancer, and had to come to Carswell to undergo treatment. I learned that, when it was discovered, she was at a stage 3. How absolutely frightening to have to face that while incarcerated. The good news, though, is that she is done with all her chemo/radiation and her outlook looks good. I mentioned to Tall that it seems that this place does a good job with people with breast cancer. She told me that she saw all her doctors on med-trips outside of Carswell and that she was seen by a true cancer specialist. If for some reason an appointment was missed, the doctor would be on the phone to Carswell telling them that they need to bring Tall right away. I'm so grateful for their medical miracles!

I am looking forward to developing a great teamwork environment with Tall and she seems open to it. She will be here longer than I will, so I'm trying to give her all the ins and outs, because when I leave, she may be the only tutor for a while and then it will be her responsibility to train the next one. It's all about "paying it forward." It's a good, rewarding, job. I am so grateful to have this job and I'm glad that Tall is now able to be part of the team!