Reflections

A collaborative post by Tony Sinanis and Lisa Meade When you look back on the order of events, it may not make much sense to those in our worlds. We were both successful principals leading amazing teams in our incredible schools. We worked with kids who were excited to come to school, with families who were proud  to share their children with us and educators who put kids at the center of every decision. We felt highly capable in our positions. The principalship allowed us to impact a myriad of decisions, shape the trajectory of a community and nurture a culture of learning for adults and students. We were inspired by the work of other principals in our PLN and kept raising the bar with new ideas and approaches in our buildings because we knew we had to model what we hoped for our in our communities… being learners first and teachers second! As we begin thinking about what 2017 has in store for us, we paused to think about where we both were a year ago when we were thinki...

I am always struck by how much a story sticks with me. Sure, I remember parts of the research and reasons why certain strategies are better to use than others. But, words from personal experience always stick with me. At a recent PD session with an incredible facilitator, the power of a story was there. He told the group about his own schooling story (I won't give it away here as it is not mine to tell) and it just didn't seem plausible. How could the boy in his story be the same man that stood before us? But, he was. He is. His story is what he brings to his work and gives it color and heart. I've written about parts of my own story before and the bias it can cause me to bring to my practice. But, it's not really a bias. It can become the context. As educators, we each bring different experiences to our practice. What we've been through impacts decisions we make in the future. What we've seen with our own eyes gives us hope for new similar situations. W...

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 ...