With exams beginning and the end of the school year drawing near, I find myself in a huge hurry. Documentation for central office must be done. Budget must be complete. Interviews, hiring, planning for events, writing speeches, counseling students and parents, data, testing....it goes on and on. I swear I think of this stuff in my sleep. This has been a hard year, and a great year. If I think back 10 months ago, before you all came back to our building, that's probably exactly what I expected. Change and growth are hard. There are no easy or exact answers. If there were, all schools would excel, all students would be high achievers and all teachers would be perfect (ok principals too). But we're not perfect. We work, we struggle, we win, we fail, we triumph one moment and we are let down the next. We blame others, only to see the reflection of ourselves (principals too). We take criticism that we know is unjust, only to doubt ourselves later for it (principals too).Every school year is hard, but know this: I believe in you. More importantly, I believe in us. And even if 850+ students do not say it, and their parents do not say it, they believe in us too. I believe that we have hit the tip of the iceberg of this thing called Grit, and we are going to take it much farther...for ourselves and our students. I believe that we are going to miss true leaders that are moving on, but I believe that there are those among us that will take up their torch. I believe in getting back to basics on instruction and at the same time, celebrating innovators that break moulds. I believe in your determination. I believe that we have bad days and good days. We scream in silence and we thank each other the next day. Most importantly, I believe in what you are here to do.
So here's to those of you that work extra hours to re-grade. To those of you that planned a great lesson, and re-tooled it at lunch. To those of you that worked weekends with students to make up time and grades. To those of you that cursed your obligation, but did it anyway because you felt it was the right thing to do. Our jobs are not easy but we all believed when we chose to show up the next day. Thank you for that. Enjoy your summer.
