"Do you know how lucky you are?"

When I came to Greene Central five years ago, the school was in a huge transition. I had to quickly verse myself with all of the terms and requirements of a priority school, the School Improvement Grant and a programs like STEM, READ 180 and Carnegie Math. Some of you remember this transition very well and for others that have arrived since then, it may be all that you have ever known of the school. Within my first couple of years, it seemed like we were also showing off the school or some program within it to legislators, federal transition coaches or groups that were interested in doing something similar. At the time it felt like I couldn't get anything done for having to talk with this group or that group, but over the years, the frequency of those tours has started to slow down.

We recently had two of these visits to our school that helped remind me of a lot of things. Last Friday I had a visit from a group of principals that I help mentor from across the east. They have schools with similar backgrounds and they have similar problems of poverty in their districts. On Monday, we were visited by a representative from the Successful Practices Network, a group that studies STEM learning and technology in schools across the United States. These site visits may have done more to remind me about just how great our school is, than it did for our visitors. Much like you do in your classrooms, I also focus on the problem areas. Too often I see problems of student discipline, problems of teacher effectiveness, problems with facilities that need repair or even more long term problems of programs or budget. With all that focus on problems, I think I had lost sight of all of the solutions that were in front of me. It wasn't until one of the principals from last Friday's visit asked our student leaders, "Do you know how lucky you are?" that I paused to ask myself the very same question.

It sounds simple, but do take time to step back and focus on the positives and not just the problems. They are all around us. They walk our halls as kids that we connected with. They come back to visit as ones that are success stories. They teach down the hall as new teachers that learned from you. They are there as parents that appreciate what we have done. While we will always have new problems to solve, it's also important to take time to look around and count our blessings to appreciate where we have come.