Reflections

It was an especially good day and I was feeling positive about some interactions and steps forward. I had the chance to talk to one of my teachers about one of the events and tried to explain how much I appreciated her hard work and support. I explained: As a teacher, likely your greatest reward is knowing you are making a difference with kids. You want them to remember you as the one that helped. I see my role, as an administrator, the same way except my "kids" are my teachers. Of course, I care about my students and work hard to support and interact with them each day. But, when I began this administration journey, my first "boss" explained to me how each layer of an organization should support and compliment the work of the next layer. One of my main responsibilities is to make sure my teachers have what they need to support students. Think of the phrase "hurt people, hurt people". If we flip that, we can say that supported people support peopl...

He started the workshop by asking us to reflect on a part of our childhood and share that out with strangers. I'm forty five years old but I suddenly didn't feel that old anymore. I was able to remember, in an instant, very specific memories of growing up. Some of those memories were bright and positive and some of them were sad and lonely.  When it became my turn, I spoke about second chances and people believing in me. At my very core, I still bring those experiences to my interactions with others these some 30 plus years later. We can pretend we don't, but we do. There are still words, on a singular level, that can trigger a response from me. Said even in isolation, these words cause an internal reaction. The response isn't even just related to that ONE moment when the word was spoken. Instead the word acts as a key that opens up all the past memories I have associated with that word.  That doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing.  It could be a good t...

I am a member of #compelledtribe. We've been asked to write a post about our goals for the coming year.  I have many goals but took some time to list the ones that are on my mind this week. These are not in order of importance. Depending on the hat I am wearing, some of these goals will change or become more specific. I have additional goals I need to focus on within our school but this list is what I need to do about me and for me .  Learn to Sketchnote Write more Re-commit to health Travel with family Forgive Gain confidence Continue to improve my skills as a school administrator Above all else, be a good Mom Throughout this coming year, my main goals are even simpler.  Live fully  Be present  Do my best  Take a few jumps "Hope that you spend your days, but they all add up And when that sun goes down, hope you raise your cup Oh, I wish that I could witness all your joy and all your pain But until my moment comes, I'l...

I am a member of #compelledtribe. This month's blogging assignment asks us to write a reflection for 2015.  As this year comes to a close, I am struck by how much positive I've had shared with me. It's something I hope I don't soon forget and especially as we move into 2016.  A quick scan of my google calendar and I've found a major event for almost every month! This is on top of my work as Mom and Middle School Principal which includes a myriad of blessings as well. Jan. 2015 - I work in an incredible district with an incredible Board of Education.  I made the transition from wearing two hats to wearing just one in the month of January. It had become nearly impossible to juggle both responsibilities well so it became time for me to give up one of them and they supported the creation of an additional administrative position. [Blog post about Changing Paths ] March 2015 - I presented in Lake Placid with my school's PBIS team about our program and s...

During August 2015, I attended a Google Camp for Administrators. One of the sessions was led by an edtech expert in my region, David Ashdown . I've followed David's work for nearly 15 years. He's always been in the front of technology use and I've stolen many a neat idea from him. He offered a session about Google Classroom and I attended thinking I needed to gather more ideas about this app for my teachers. However, in the session, David pushed our thinking in asking us to consider how we could use Google Classroom as administrators . He shared an example of setting up classrooms for different work groups and committees. I loved his idea! Almost immediately, I set up classrooms for committees in my building. This kept all of the information collected for each group (SDM, PBIS, etc.) all in one folder on the back end of Drive. I also created a classroom for my building. This is where I would post my weekly messages. Under the about tab, I also collected resources ...

At the time, it seemed like a great idea. I was certain I could pull it off. Now, as the deadline for the ¨great idea¨ is nearing, I am realizing that perhaps I didn´t think this all the way through. I have volunteered to learn a song for an upcoming Holiday Concert. Hey, I played the bells (xylophone) just 30 plus years ago. I am sure I can remember how to play a simple Christmas carol.  Or so I thought. Just a few weeks ago, I was loaned a set of bells on which to practice. I took them home fairly certain what I knew "then" would just come rushing back to me "now". That did NOT happen. As I unfolded the music, I realized I didn't automatically know the names of all the notes. A quick google search and I was using post-it notes to mark notes on the bells. (Turns out those notes would need to be revised as I coded those incorrectly!) In the middle of my confusion, I began to understand my arrogance. I assumed that remembering all of what I knew bef...

A collaborative post by Lisa Meade and Tim Dawkins The release of the Common Core Task Force Report from Governor Cuomo’s office has created some interesting news and even more interesting social media posts. While it is tempting to rush through the talking points of this document, we must remember that these are recommendations , not an immediate change in regulations. There are, in fact, 21 recommendations set out by the Task Force in the report. It would be easy to begin predicting all of the possible ways that things could change for us and for our students. But, any prediction, at this time is premature. And as we have seen in the past, however, trying to predict how things will play out in Albany is never an easy call. We were relieved to see that some of the negative examples they shared (teachers being required to use modules in whole, automatically placing students in AIS based on one state test score, not providing IEP accommodations, etc.) did not occur in our bu...