Reflections

I think it was third grade, maybe second. The older gentleman would pick me up from my classroom and walk me to speech therapy. My memory sees it as a space under a stairwell. He'd hold my chin and say the sounds over and over asking me to repeat them. SHHH....CHHHHH... He'd give me reminders about slowing down when I talk. I felt a bit of shame I couldn't get those sounds right and I couldn't --- no matter how hard I tried --- get my brain to slow down when I talked. Around that same time, I began to notice other students on the playground. They were students we didn't necessarily see all day but looked to be similar in age. I can't remember who talked to whom first but I met a girl named Pam. She was a student in a special education classroom ( I didn't realize that until many years later ) in the same building except I had no idea where that classroom was. Looking back, I am not sure anyone did. Somehow, she found out I could draw and I began to draw th...

I was in my former district for 10 years in various capacities. During those years, my favorite role was that of Middle School Principal. It's an experience I look back on often and recall with pure fondness. I learned so much during that time and with that team. As I spent more time there, my awareness and perception about our school grew and gained dimension. My appreciation for what we had deepened. I could find beauty, effort and celebration in so much. I grew skilled in articulating those positives. In my new role, in a much larger district, I serve as a newer member of the administrative team and often walk away from different meetings in different buildings truly amazed at what this district offers for students. I don't always get to articulate that as well as I should. It's all so new to me still so the time to fully process is longer.  Do we have areas we need to look at more closely for certain parts of our student population? Yes! Do we have areas of need...

Like many leaders, I consider myself a work in progress. Sure, there are a few skills I have that are well developed but there are others I have that are not . I have MANY needed areas of improvement. I am a highly reflective person (some would say too much so) and often think about interactions from the day and role play how I could have handled something better than I did. But I have this one bias that can sometimes keeps me from listening with an open mind. When I hear people talk about this topic and use it as an excuse not to expect more from a student, I briefly stop listening. I get frustrated. It's my own bias and something I am working on.  It has to do with setting limits. Limits due to poverty, perceived skill level, or even motivation. When we use generalizations about students as our main reasons for why a student is having difficulty, it is unfair. Still, overcoming limits can't just happen because we say it will. I am not naive enough to believe some limit...

A three day weekend has provided a lot of time for personal reflection (and skilled avoidance of housework). In some ways, having too much time to think is a bad thing. I've spent some time replaying recent conversations and wondering if I've done the best I could have at handling them.  Part of this reflection time has also included catching up on blog post reading. I learn so much from other educators and their posts. Sometimes, I comment. Sometimes, I just retweet. But, nearly all of the time, the posts seem to move me closer to a needed piece of clarity in my own practice.  In assuming a new role in a new (and larger) district, I'm trying to find my focus. As in any of our schools or classrooms, there are always areas we want to work on. New teacher to veteran teacher, new leader to experienced leader. Levels of proficiency or service shouldn't change that. Most, if not all of the educators I've been honored to work with, always want to move ahead....tho...

Sometimes, you have to buy your own flowers. Sometimes, you have to find the good and celebrate it all on your own. Work like ours is slow and steady. We might see gains in small pieces and sometimes shortchange that view by focusing on what is still left to be finished.  In many ways, that's unfair. Incredibly unfair, in fact.  The to-do list never gets any shorter. I once had a mentor who'd counsel me..." You keep trying to make this a sprint. That's not the kind of race you're in. It's a marathon. "  He was right except the part that implies a finish line. Sometimes there are competing forces that slow down our pace. The trick is in learning how to get through them. On some days, our results are better than other days but staying in the race still counts.  The work we do in our schools and for all of our children (and our teachers!) is too important and too big to allow the race to stop, the efforts to weaken, the climb to stall, or the pace to ...

When I was a middle school principal, we often hosted visitors to our school. One of the best compliments I ever received from them was about how the school "felt". Time after time, people were impressed with the interactions they had witnessed and would ask me how we created that culture. When pressed to quantify it, I 'd cite student attendance rate, teacher attendance rate and discipline data. But, I was always missing concrete data for how it "felt". Eventually, I gave up trying to quantify it and relied on the impressions and feedback from those within our school and those coming to visit. I was (and will always be) proud of the climate in that school.  Earlier this week, my sister in law took my nephews to their Kindergarten Orientation. I happened to notice what she wrote on Facebook, " Going to be an exciting year for these two!! They have great teachers, and the atmosphere here is comforting!!!"   There it is again. That feeling...from a Mo...

We were discussing the pros and cons of starting over in a new high school and he stopped me mid-conversation.  Abruptly, he remarked. " Mom, what are you most afraid of? ".  I told him that staying where he already knew everyone had its advantages. Many of them. Including the one about already knowing who the " bad guys"  were or where the rough spots could be.  "But, I'm not afraid of mean kids, mom."   I quietly marveled at his ability to accept the change and not to be afraid. He told me about the extended opportunities this new place would bring for him and how he really needed to start thinking about his future.  Many hours later, I am still thinking about the resiliency within his words and the lessons I can learn from them for myself. Change can be hard and perhaps even more so for adults. Arriving to a new school as a student, teacher or as a leader requires a certain amount of courage. People may not understand your intentions at ...