Reflections

Thanksgiving break has given me more down time than I usually have. Much of it has been spent with my son. He's 12 and from all accounts -- especially his account -- doesn't need his mom's advice nearly as much as he used to. In talking with one of my dearest friends about my son and his moodiness, she reminded me some of this could be related to his age. What? No way. But then I remembered, yes way. He's 12. He's in middle school. Some of this could be adolescence. There are days he is convinced nothing good is happening. Then there are other days he is extremely grateful. There are hours where he needs an enormous amount of attention. Then there are other hours where he can become engulfed in a project. I try to remember what being his age was like and recall parts of past conversations. "Don't do this because..." "You'll have trouble with this because..." "No one likes you." "You don't have what the o...

I am pretty fortunate to have many colleagues whom I can go to with ideas, questions, and even worries. They help me process through my thoughts which only helps me take the much needed next step. Most of these colleagues are people I follow on twitter or engage in conversations through Voxer. The more I've become "connected", I've realized how social media has really leveled the playing field for so many of us. Before connected leadership, I never would have had the opportunities to discuss real educational issues with so many people whom I look up to in education -- #eduheros like Peter DeWitt, Tony Sinanis , and more!  Some of my dearest colleagues have warned me that twitter can become an echo chamber of sorts. I agree that I've seen that happen and yes, have even perpetuated it.  But, it's more than that too.  Earlier this year, in conversation with Tony Sinanis, I talked more about this idea of connected leadership. While we talked, I t...

So much of what we do requires finding a balance. To different people we are different people. I am a mother, wife, sister, daughter, aunt, cousin, principal, teacher, colleague, and friend. Different roles sometimes require multiple responses. As of this writing, I am on my way to #NYSCATE14 and have just said good bye to my son at the train station. He wasn't all that pleased I was leaving to go to "another" conference (as he put it). He eventually came around and hugged me good bye. While there is a part of me that feels guilty about giving up part of my weekend (which is usually mostly family time), I know that part of being a connected, collaborative leader requires this.  On my own, I am an introvert by nature. People will be surprised to read that. But, part of my job, as a leader, requires me to be an extrovert. Since that does not come easily for me, I have used conferences and connections with amazing colleagues to improve my skills in this area. How do you...

I am one member of #compelledtribe and our assignment this month is to write about parent-teacher conferences. Ours begin at the end of this week so the timing of this assignment, for me, is well played. As I went about all the things I needed to get done today (as Mom), I thought about this assignment. I've been thinking about parent-teacher conferences from different vantage points and realize the messages we hope to hear are the same. Whether I am the mom, a teacher, the principal or a student, the following messages still apply. I believe in you.  We need each other. You matter. https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8440/7816351058_c0d63f07e2.jpg I know in our school, we wish we had more time allotted to see all of our parents. Unfortunately, we don't. This is why it is even more important to maintain dialogues with parents all year long and not just at Open House or parent-teacher conference time. For every parent we meet this week and next, I hope we are clea...

I hadn't planned on submitting nominations for the EduBlog Awards ( #eddies14 ) when I first noticed the tweets on twitter this afternoon. I was just unwinding from a particularly stressful day when I began to read the tweets posted about the awards and other nominees. I skimmed the categories and thought of the amazing people that make up my PLN. I am sincerely blessed to be connected to so many AWESOME administrators and teachers that keep me on a positive path. With that in mind, I had to take the few minutes to nominate two bloggers who have impacted my practice significantly. ( I also had to write this post so that my nominations can count twice!) Best Individual Blog - Peter DeWitt 's Finding Common Ground Peter's blog is my definite "go to" blog. The topics are varied, current and push my thinking. Peter tells it like it is and challenges me and my practice. He's also such a supporter of varied voices and hosts many guest bloggers a month. It...

Sometimes, I think being a Principal's (or Teacher's) child isn't all it's cracked up to be. We can get too close "to the picture" to see the details.  We can become hyper-focused on doing well in school, especially if learning comes relatively easy to our child. I sometimes forget how to wear one hat without wearing another. As a principal, I work with teachers who set deadlines for assignments (and they should). As a mom, sometimes I miss a deadline with my son and feel incredible guilt. And so the argument begins with myself, "Who's responsibility is it anyway? Yours or His? Both?". Every Sunday night is clean out the book bag night. As a principal, I would recommend to my parent self that the book bag should be cleaned out more often and likely way before Sunday night. Yet, when I am home, (as a mom), a million other things come up and I don't get to the book bag as often as I should (or as much as that principal voice says I should)...

I've written about the power of a PLN before so this post may seem repetitive. A pile of paperwork sits before me and I can't move through it until I get some of these thoughts on "paper". This post is more about me clearing my mind so I can focus. It's about taking time to listen to what my heart is trying to remind me. I really appreciated the post written by Theresa Stager today. It spoke openly about leaning on each other and admitting when we are not at our best.  I began my weekend thinking along those very same lines. I didn't finish half of the work I had planned to do. However, my mind seems to be clearing and I am hopeful I will catch up on most of it tonight. As I begin sorting the piles and rewriting to-do lists (really weird ritual of mine...), I am thankful for the support members of my PLN have given me today . All of this support would NEVER have been available to me today --- this weekend, this month, right when I need it -- without my en...

Earlier this week, Peter DeWitt posted about faculty meetings and the need for administrators to make sure teachers have a voice in them. Peter's posts always cause great reflection for me and this one was no different.  In part, he wrote: Many leaders do not encourage teacher voice in their faculty meetings, and then they complain all that they hear from teachers during faculty meetings are complaints.  When I read the post earlier this week, I was feeling pretty comfortable that our faculty meetings were better than faculty meetings of the past. We end each meeting with a smackdown and those have really brought the focus of our conversations back to teaching and learning.  As final touches were put on our agenda for this month, I was feeling pretty confident about the meeting. Yet, I seriously underestimated how amazing it would be. (Who says that about a meeting?!)  We opened the meeting talking about making calls home. Good calls are easy to mak...

Most mornings, I try to participate in #BFC530. It helps to positively set my mind. One of the tweets I caught in the stream this morning was: @ThatMathLady  Think outside your MS-T box. What makes you creative in one can help in the other. Change your narrative!  #BFC530 — Maine Endwell AP Gov (@APGovME)  November 3, 2014 The last phrase -- " Change your narrative !" stuck with me all day. It reminded me of a message I had sent my staff this week (as part of my weekly  Monday Matters ). In part, I wrote:  When we make time for the face to face conversations, I think we learn more about each other and our building. I've realized, through some honest feedback, that there are still many areas of my own leadership that need improvement. When I consider what those are, they all seem to connect to more communication and more transparency. I suspect my perception of my role in this building is quite similar to your perception of your role in this building. You...