A Day in the Life of An Explore Assistant Director

Alright so bear with me people. This month’s blog all about me (Mel)! Just kidding but kind of.
We are covering a typical day for an Explore Horizons Assistant Director.
There are many of me and we all wear different hats, literally and hypothetically. Currently,
there are about (#) ADs (Assistant Directors). There are at most 3 of us per center working under our
fearless Center Directors (CDs). We will cover them later because right now this blog is about us!
I wake up at the extremely early hour of 10 a.m. (this varies per AD’s center location and 9-6
schedule). I work at Explore Horizons Fort Worth, in Alliance Town Center. It takes me about forty
minutes to drive to work every day.
I know what you’re thinking, how does this 23-year-old girl get up, get ready and get in the car
to drive to work in the brief time she has provided herself? Well the answer is, very quickly with as little
maintenance as possible, but I digress.
I wake up throw some clothes on and grab my morning coffee like any normal, working, semi
adult does.
Magically, about 45 minutes later I appear in the center ready to begin my day.
The first thing I do, if I’m on my game, when I walk in the door is clock in. This means it is 11:00 a.m. and
my day has begun.
Now, from the moment I walk in the door my day is planned pretty much to the hour. Some
people may see this as stressful. For those of us that need every second of every day planned to be
productive, and on task, this is heaven sent.

11:00 a.m.
Arrive in center, on time hopefully, and clock in. After I have clocked in I usually greet my fellow ADs and
CD. Following that I’ll unpack my purse, which is usually full of at least 5 snacks, a red bull and maybe a
water? I take a seat and I begin looking over emails to catch up from the days I was not in (I am on the
Tuesday-Saturday Rota where as my CD is Monday-Friday and another AD is Sunday-Thursday).

11:15ish a.m.
Usually by this time, if it’s a Tuesday, our squad will begin our weekly meeting. This is where we touch
base on center metrics (retention, sign ups, trial booking, conversion etc.), discuss anything that came
up during the days the whole group wasn’t in the center and plan the upcoming week till our next
weekly meeting. This meeting can take anywhere from 1.5 hours to sometimes 2 hours because, let’s be
honest, you all know I can talk.

1:00 p.m.
At this point of the day we usually prep the day we have ahead of us. That means someone is prepping
Parent Meetings (meetings to update parents on their child’s progress in the center), someone is doing
confirmation calls for the appointments we have that day and the next day and, given the time of year,
someone is prepping the summer workshops we may have that day.
Listed above is pretty much a baseline day, but sometimes this time can be switched up with a workshop
for the team (going over a specific skill), a sales circuit (gets competitive juices flowing, probs just for
me, and adrenaline pumping), or a conference call with the company.

2:00 ish p.m.

Let’s face it at this point I. am. Hangry. It’s time to eat people. Me being the irresponsible and ill
prepared semi adult that I am, usually go to buy my lunch somewhere around our lovely Alliance Town
Center.

Now I know what you’re probably thinking, woah that’s a late hour to eat lunch…but let’s also consider
that I don’t wake up till 9:45ish and I walk in the door for work at 11:00 a.m. Would eating at a normal
time really be worth doing? THE ANSWER IS NO PEOPLE, but in my case, I always think about food,
hence the snacks I unpack at 11:00 ish a.m.

2:45 ish p.m.

I’m sure these super unprecise times are killing you at this point, but who’s day goes as planned to the
minute? No ones unless you are some sort of super freak, then props to you. Okay, anyway, currently
we are all settling back into the center to begin Showtime.

3:00 p.m.
Now here’s a precise time for you, and one that no one can control…IT IS SHOWTIME. Showtime means
literally how it sounds. Our doors have been opened, the tutors have arrived, and the kiddos and
parents are beginning to bust through the doors because they can’t wait to see us, aka see me. Just
jokes but really the doors are open now.

From this time on till about 7:00 p.m. all the managers, including myself, have a specific job role to
perform. This changes day to day to ensure everyone gets a piece of all the Explore Horizons action.
Someone is assigned the task of holding Parent Meetings, someone is holding free assessments (an hour
trial for new families to decide if they love us and want to join our Explore family), someone is
compering (fancy French word for running the front desk and the entire center during showtime) and
since we are a 4-man team our last human is usually doing sales/ helping run the center or maybe
tutoring from time to time.

7:00 p.m.
Depending on the day this is the time that the center has wound down and a specialist course is
beginning. Our specialist course selection includes: Advanced Writing and Study Skills, Enhanced Writing
and Enhanced Math.

A manager is always in charge of either running the course or seeing that it is running smoothly
(implementing behavior management or tutoring the subject of the day).

Within this hour (there are about 2 managers remaining based on a 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. schedule) the
other manager is beginning to tie a bow on the day.
7:45 ish p.m.
The specialist course is wrapping up and both managers and left-over tutors (not including the one
running the course) start picking up the day and prepping for tomorrow. This time of the day is called…
you guessed it END OF DAY. Managers are completing our daily planning and reporting sheet (this sheet
lists everything we did for the day to the hour including some metrics involving trials, progress meetings,
debt, trials booked etc.)

8:00 p.m.
We are officially closed for business and the kids have either been picked up by their parents or they are
in the process of leaving.

Tutors are picking up the center, checking that everything is clean, where it belongs and beginning to
clock out for the day.

We try not to walk out the door any later than 8:30 p.m. because, honestly, anything that can’t be
completed by this point should be completed the next day.

Once End of Day is complete we scan the sheet and email it off to our head office in Addison, to share
our victories for the day with the rest of the company.

Okay, there you have it people, a day in the life of me. Man, I’m exhausted, time to get dinner and go to
bed. Its been real, thanks for following along!

Lots of Love,

Mel