At the end of every day, I have bus duty. Our school is huge, and the parking lot is always full with seven buses, numerous cars, and caregivers walking to pick up students. I guess that there would be many reasons to dread this duty, but as I was heading outside today, I realized something: I love bus duty!

• I love saying “goodbye” to the students as they leave for the day.
• I love connecting with many of my previous students and hearing about their days.
• I love chatting with the many students that I’ve never taught but still always hang around to say, “hello!” There would be so many Grade 8’s that I’d never know if it weren’t for bus duty!
• I love connecting with parents that come to pick up their children or drop things off at the school. Forming these connections, matter!
• I love calling out the many animal bus names as they arrive. There’s something about the monkey bus, the owl bus, and even the cow bus (that doesn’t exist, but we still talk about each day) that makes me giggle!

As I think tonight about bus duty, I can’t help but think that the school day really does extend beyond the classroom. From entry time to nutrition breaks to the end of the day, we have so many opportunities to connect with students and parents. We have time to converse, we have time to laugh, and we have time to show all members of our school community that they matter. How do you use this time? How could we all use this time better? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

Aviva