Learning by doing

Today I was responsible for the issues that are usually dealt with by our lovely administrator as she was away training. She has a great way of juggling the immediate needs of the children and the other competing needs from colleagues, parents and all sorts of other people interested in the school. She knows all of the children by name and most of their parents. She appears unflappable!

Then she leaves me in that role. I have met some of the children but have not managed to retain their names yet – working on that one.

So I was there at the start of the day with a smile ( I do that – it confuses people) and a bagful of energy. After making a tannoy announcement along the lines of “I’m managing the office today – please be kind” the onslaught began.  I did my best but missed the deadline for getting the lunches numbers to the ladies in the kitchen who have more than enough to do without dealing with a numpty.

I answered the phone but answered few of the queries. My lovely colleagues were around to bounce those off.

…and then – joy – Fiona came back early as she had got lost on the way to her training and had missed the start.

I used the opportunity to stay put and shadow her for the rest of the morning because – of course – she has had to rebook the training. I feel much more confident about the next time.

Is there a better way to learn than being thrown in at the deep end? Of course I would maybe not advocate that approach for brain surgeons – but I learned masses today and it will be interesting to see how I use that from now on.

My daughter  – who has been in her job 6 months now – was worried that she did not know how to do everything she is asked yet . I know what she means – but unless you do it, feel the pain, reflect on what you learn- how can you learn?