Reflection

I had just walked in the door and set down my things yesterday when I got a text. I'm pretty sure that my eyes rolled at the thought of what was about to disrupt me from taking a second to unwind. It was one of my professors from ECU. The text read, "What three obstacles have you overcome on the way to earning your degree?" I didn't expect to be prompted with a question. I thought I was done, but there was one last task. It took me a second to think about it and maybe that's the point.

At the end of each year, we hurry to finish our final classroom observations, PDPs, and we complete our summatives. The final standard of the summative talks about reflection. It's the one you can't really observe in a classroom, but I think this year, more than any, it's really important. Taking a few minutes to answer my professor's text made me think about how far I had come, what I had learned, and how I have changed. I'd bet that most of you could do the same this year. If you're like me, some of the obstacles that you overcame this year were external. Maybe it was learning Canvas or communicating with parents when you didn't have good contact information. External obstacles are easy to spot because they are the day-to-day problems that we encounter. But if you really think, you'll also find some internal obstacles. These are our thoughts, habits, or behaviors that have to change. These require personal growth. I've seen SO MANY of you struggle and grow this year as you continuously rose to the challenges that were thrown your way. So at the end of this Teacher Appreciation Week, I'm forwarding the question your way. What 3 obstacles have you overcome this year? It's a harder question than you think, but there's no way you don't feel a sense of pride in your answer.

For the record, here was my answer:

1. Communication: It was hard at times to get what I needed when I needed it. I had to pull from other people to get the info I needed to move forward. 

2. My Own Stubbornness: Working on this degree was some of the most work that I have had to do where I wasn't the one in charge in recent years. When things don't go my way, I have a tendency to dig in and I had to learn to get over that.

3. The Paperwork Process: I had to redo my dissertation submission 5 times. I am still convinced that something is going to be wrong and I won't graduate!

Send me your answers if you're up for sharing. 

"Winning is a Habit"

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the North Carolina High School Athletic Association's Hall of Fame banquet on behalf of Donald Clark. Mr. Clark retired from Greene Central seven years ago, so if you're relatively new here, you may not know his name. But if you're from Greene County or know anything about tennis in North Carolina, you absolutely know him. Mr. Clark came to Greene Central and really wanted to coach baseball, but got asked to fill in as a tennis coach for a bit. Two years later he was 0-32 and really was considering giving it up. But he decided to study the teams that won consistently and copy them. The teams started winning and a few years later were regular contenders for the state championships. Take a look in the trophy case up front and you'll see a lot of tennis in there. Those are because of Mr. Clark. 

When he spoke for the crowd, he said something that resonated with me. He said he learned that winning was a habit and that when you start winning and know how to win, it's hard to stop. Think about how true that is. We sometimes attribute winning to key individuals or superstars in the field, but often when a culture of winning is developed, those teams (or groups) continue to do well after the superstar is gone. Our own tennis program is a great example of that. Mr. Clark has been gone for seven years, but our teams have continued to thrive. They expect to win.

Building a winning culture is hard to do and it doesn't change overnight because you worked hard for one year. Remember Mr. Clark started 0-32. But sustained effort builds upon itself and eventually, it adds up to a lot. We can all learn a lot from Mr. Clark beyond tennis. He is proof that time and dedication to anything can pay off and impact so many others. He taught a small farming community how to win against communities with country clubs, and he left us with a habit of winning. 

Cortisol

A herd of gazelle graze in the savannah. Heads down, eating as they do every day. One is alerted to the rustling of the grass ahead of them. She stops eating and listens. Her senses are on alert to detect danger ahead. Seeing her, others in the herd also go to alert. Evolution has taught the herd to pay attention when any other member senses possible danger as a survival mechanism. Is it the wind, or a lion stalking them? As one gazelle sees the lion inch forward, it bolts in the opposite direction, and instantly the others in the herd flee to safety as well. None of this is learned behavior. There is no discussion or debate on the potential presence of the lion. It is simply biology at work. It is thousands of years of adaptation that have led the gazelle to safety. But it’s not just the gazelle that responds this way, we do it too. 

This has been a stressful year for teachers and we are entering an even more stressful end as we attempt to wrestle with double the student population in our school on top of large numbers of students that do not share the same urgency for effort that we do. On top of that, we are all tired and many of us bring other stressors from outside of school into our hallways. When our bodies are stressed, we release a chemical called cortisol. Cortisol is the chemical opposite of serotonin, the chemical that makes us feel happy. Cortisol can be good if you’re gazelle sensing a lion. It tells your body to go on alert. It’s the “fight or flight” chemical. In some situations, it can keep you alive. But the prolonged release of cortisol has very negative effects on humans and just like the herd of gazelle on the savannah, we respond to others and their stress as a biological mechanism for survival. 

Perhaps the most damaging effect of cortisol on teachers, is how it inhibits you from doing your job. The release of cortisol makes your body focus on trying to remove the stress that it is under and this shuts off the part of your brain that is capable of empathy for others. It tells your brain to save itself and not to worry about anyone else. And if you are a teacher, that means you can’t teach. You can’t care for others. All you can do is wait for someone to jump so that you can jump too. 

In these last six weeks of what has been a very stressful year, I beg you to find a way to release your stress so that you can keep that cortisol from running rampant through your body. Not only will your own body appreciate it, but others around you won’t face a biological need to respond to your stress. Managing your stress allows you to be a good colleague and an even better teacher. So go exercise, read a book, enjoy your family time, eat well and get your sleep. The rest of our herd needs you that way.

Enjoy Your Students

Just as quickly as we shut down last year, our students returned from Spring break and classes were more full than they have been in over a year. It was just in time for our FFA students to compete, the shoppers of the greenhouse to show up, another round of spring sports to kick-off, and the thermostats to switch to cool mode instead of heat. On Tuesday I found myself turning my head to loudness in the halls at class changes, only to see students greeting one another and laughing. We have all been thrown back into a more normal version of school, and while COVID isn't gone, it has been fun to remember what school was like for a bit. 

We still have students that are behind that we will struggle to catch up in the next 6 weeks. Ultimately, there will be students and parents that ask the age-old question of, "What can my child do to pass" when you have sent it out so many times. Your A/C may break down on the first hot day in May. A counselor may have to put a student in your room with 2-3 weeks left in the year. The old problems of school never went away, we were just distracted by new ones. And while we can spend the last 6 weeks in our usual tired and stressed out ways, I'm choosing to take a lesson from Mr. Ginn this year and I'm choosing Joy. I, like many of you, spent all year hoping to have our students back, and now they are here. I got what I wanted and I think some of the students did too. Reversing the impacts that a year of school in a pandemic left us won't be fixed with one summer school session. So instead of stressing over where we are with their learning, I am choosing to celebrate having the students where they are in our classrooms. Enjoy your students. They might not admit it all of the time, but I bet they are enjoying having you just the same.

Remembering Dr. Frazier

An arrogant 26-year-old walked into the principal's office to interview for an assistant principal intern position. He was the first of 3 interviews for the day and all of the applicants knew one another from their graduate classes. When the interview was over, he asked "When do I start?" Dr. Geroge Frazier, the principal, reminded him that there were two other interviews. "I know," the interviewee said, "But I know who they are, and I know who I am. So when do I start?" 

Dr. Frazier called me back two days later to welcome me to the school. I shouldn't have answered the phone. I was in the delivery room with my wife and my new daughter, Reagan. That arrogance went away quickly when I had to ask for a few days before I could start. But he was happy for me and gave me all the time I needed. He was always good at humbling me.

I only worked with Dr. Frazier for one year before he retired from education. He had been the principal at JH Rose High School for a decade and had such a wealth of knowledge. He was way past the excitement of fights or angry parents. He took everything in stride and had such a calm demeanor about him in stressful situations. He carried me everywhere with him that year. I had access to principal meetings, expulsion hearings, and even his resignation with the superintendent. He wanted me there to see and learn, but I was certainly the only principal intern there. He always used to start sentences with, "When you are Dr. Greene..." and follow it with some piece of sound advice that I probably couldn't fully understand at the time. The one that stuck with me was when he told me this: "When you are Dr. Greene, remember that D-R does not equal G-O-D." 

Dr. Frazier called me a few times after he left the school that year. Usually, he wanted me to fix his laptop or wanted a copy of the school newspaper because he wouldn't come in the building to get it. A few months later he passed away. His funeral is still the longest and largest funeral I have ever attended. At 26 years old, I had no intention of earning my doctorate and I brushed off his "when you are Dr. Greene" phrases as nothing more than flattery. But apparently, he was right and for some strange reason, I thought of him the morning I defended my dissertation. I hope he would have been proud. 

I learned a lot from Dr. Frazier that year, and I have learned a lot more from so many of you since then. You have put up with a once-young (now not so much) principal that was genuinely figuring things out as he went sometimes. And while I'm certain that there were times when you may not have agreed with me, you were patient and we figured things out together. While I'm proud of the accomplishment of finishing the degree, I'm more proud of the experiences that shaped me getting here. Experiences with each of you. I think that's what Dr. Frazier might have meant by not being God. I earned a title, but I still don't know everything. It's the wealth of knowledge and experience around us that continues to shape and grow each of us no matter where we are. So thanks for your help along the way. I couldn't have done it the same way without you.

One Year Later

One year ago on March 11th, my family sat at Pizza Villa celebrating my oldest daughter's birthday. We had just left a track meet and we were trying to cheer Rylee up for her birthday after she wasn't too happy with her performance at the meet. Food always changes her mood. I started receiving a flurry of texts about a two-week school shutdown that disrupted the rest of the evening and the next 12 months that followed. 

Last week I wrote about resilience and the many ways that it has shown up this school year. It's been a long year and we have all certainly had many highs and many lows. We have drawn closer to certain friends and family members and been separated from others. We have lost loved ones or know people that have. We have defended or argued against policies put in place that impacted our lives. We developed opinions and changed our minds. But we are still here.

This week our Governor and General Assembly announced that schools would be reopened. I had a parent ask me what I thought about it and I reminded them that we have been open since August 17th. We have been open to in-person learning, virtual learning, late-night Remind messages, phone calls and texts from parents, policy changes, and demands. We have been open to changing how and what we teach. We adjusted to some of it well and for others, it has been a bumpy road. Now, as we look to finishing out the school year with more students in front of us than we have seen in a year, we face one more hurdle. Like all of the other challenges, we will be anxious and we may question motives, but we will still be here. 

I know that this isn't Teacher Appreciation Week, but maybe it should be. Thank you to each of you that have continued to show up over the past year. Thank you for trying when your students haven't. Thank you for adjusting when you might not have agreed. Each of you stands like a lighthouse in a storm and together we will get them through the end of this disruption and get back to the business of school. 

One year later....thank you.

A Theme in News Stories

Over the past two weeks, I've spoken to the media about our school more than I have in the past year combined. It started with the story about Ben Lozano's return to school following cancer treatment. This week I spoke with a reporter doing a story on rural school facilities. and a lack of funding that was promised to improve them three years ago from our state legislature. If you're been anywhere near the work on the library hall or the water leak behind the greenhouses this week, you know this is an issue. Yesterday, I got to participate in a story about how rural schools are making school work this year given the specific challenges that we face. Schools and learning are hot topics right now politically, so it doesn't shock me that news outlets are paying attention to what school is like right now and how different school looks in different places. The pandemic exposed some inequities that many of us have known about for years.

When I was listening to one of our Seniors, Meredith Beaman, speak with the reporter yesterday something hit me. Meredith was asked if she thought that virtual learning during her Senior year would hold her back or make her unprepared for starting college next year. Clearly, the question sets her up to say yes, but that's not what they got. Her response acknowledged the work that our school had done to help students, but it also acknowledged a mindset. Meredith told the reporter that she feels more prepared for college after this year because, in college, it is on you to motivate yourself to do the work and participate when you are supposed to. 

While the three news stories are unrelated, there certainly is a theme. Remember back a couple of years ago, we worked hard on trying to teach resilience? Well, something stuck. Think of the resilience it took for Ben Lozano to fight cancer and return to school without scars on his head even fully healed. Think of the resilience that our staff has undergone this year mixed with the struggle of a school that sometimes needs some work to keep it going. And while so much of our focus this year has been on the kids that are not keeping up with their work, don't forget that most of them are. We are a resilient bunch and there are examples of it all around us. And while being resilient isn't always easy or convenient, it gets the job done.