MCN Billing and Technical Sales

My assignment as Nina, Billing and Technical Sales at the Mendocino Community Network (MCN), was perhaps my most unique to date.  I am pretty confident that we are the only school district in California to own an internet service provider.  As a school Superintendent, it has provided some new and interesting learning experiences.  I rely heavily on Sage, our manager at MCN to run the business.

Nina was substituting that day as our Office Manager, and I was glad she saved a difficult job for me to do.  She provided a list of customers who had been late on their payment and had already been contacted about making their payment.  My job was to call them and give them a “courtesy reminder” that their bill was overdue and for them to pay by next Tuesday to avoid disruption in their service.

Nina had written out a script for me, and Sage was monitoring my calls so I had a safety net.  I was nervous as I dialed for my first call.  The customer was gracious and asked if I could change her credit card number and to make it a monthly transaction.  I fumbled my way through it, but thanks to Sage’s guidance, it was a success.  The rest of the calls that day were much easier!

At MCN, we pride ourselves on our local, friendly customer service.  Our customers know that and appreciate that, which I think made my job much easier that day.  Chalk it up as another great learning opportunity that I would most likely not have experienced if it wasn’t for this project.

Photo by Sage Statham

K-8 School Admin Assistant

This past week I covered for Jeanne, one of our admin assistants at the K-8 School.  Jeanne and Tracy (our other admin assistant) have been working together for quite some time at the K-8 School.  Jeanne and Tracy are as smooth as Tinker to Evers, Concepcion to Morgan, and even Trammell to Whitaker.  Go ahead, Google them – and if you know Jeanne and Tracy, you won’t disagree with me.  I knew I couldn’t replace Jeanne in that double play combo, but I was excited to drink a cup of coffee, sit next to Tracy, and watch her work her magic in the morning.

At about 8:15, the phones started ringing, students and parents came in with various requests, and staff members came in to say hello…it was a crazy morning!  On one occasion, I answered the phone and there was another conversation in the background and I felt like I had to ask the caller to repeat their information about 5 times.  It was hard for me to handle one phone call with commotion.

Around 9:00, Tracy gave me some sobering information – that morning had been the slowest morning of the year!

Kindergarten/First Grade Teacher

I went back into the classroom for my latest assignment – this time covering for Margaret as a kindergarten/first grade teacher.  I’m not sure why, but the night before I was particularly nervous about being a kindergarten teacher.  I have always enjoyed visiting kindergarten classrooms and interacting with the children, but I could not imagine myself ever being a kindergarten teacher.  The ability to explain concepts to 5-year olds, the organization, the patience…it sounds so overwhelming! My experience as a classroom teacher is in 3^rd and 4^th grade – not too much older, but then again, light years older!

After greeting the children as they came into the classroom, we met on the floor in the front of the room.  We started with some calendar activities and a discussion of the fact that it was the 80^th day of school.  Margaret asked me to have them come up with some equations that equal 80.  The students were excited to come up with some very thoughtful and creative equations!

After I almost got a 100% on a name quiz, we split up into grade levels for math.  Kathleen, the instructional assistant took the 1^st graders and I worked with kindergarten students. After about 20 minutes we switched grade levels.  Students were eager to play a math game in partners.  Our new math program, Bridges, involves a lot of manipulatives and math games to teach and reinforce concepts.  As of now, the program is getting good reviews from our teachers.

As the clock neared 9:30 (and Margaret’s return), the energy and noise level of the students was increasing and increasing and I was honestly felt like I was starting to lose them.  I was wondering if having a new teacher for an hour and a break in their morning routine would throw them off for the rest of the day.  Not a problem for Margaret, however.  In her calm, quiet way, she asked the children to clean up and meet her back on the rug.  She started to skip count with a few of the students and soon enough, she had the attention of the entire class as they skip counted with her and she proceeded with further directions and lessons.

Kindergarten/First Grade Instructional Assistant

Last week I covered for Kathleen, one of our kindergarten/first grade instructional assistants.  For my hour of work she assigned me to library and lunch duty.  My first task was to help the students check out books from the library, and of course, to keep the peace and order.  I did the classic library “Shhhh!” a few times and talked with the students about the books they chose.

It was soon off to lunch where I helped the students through the cafeteria line and at the salad bar.  Some of the students had to stand on their tip toes to get that rogue carrot or cucumber with the tongs, but they managed it.  Mostly, I had to remind them to get their required full serving of vegetables – at least 6 carrots or cucumbers.  Our District recently went through a cafeteria audit with the California Department of Education so I know more than I ever thought I would know about our food service program and requirements.

I worked with Carol, the other instructional assistant in the K/1 classes to monitor the students while they ate their lunches.  Carol had this assignment down pat – she was organized, knew how to get the attention of all the students, effectively brought the noise level down when needed, and did it all in a very positive way.  I just watched Carol and tried to do what she did.

When lunch was over I made like a mother hen, and in a single file line, I led all of the chicks to the school bus for dismissal.