What Could Go Right?

Last July, I sat in a county leadership meeting with the other school administrators and central office directors to plan how a school year would work. To say that this meeting and several that followed it were frustrating would be an understatement. I couldn't help but feel that this was never going to work. And don't get me wrong, I wanted it to work. Probably more than most people in the room. I could quickly see that our own fears of making wrong decisions led to no decisions. Obviously, to pull this off, it would take tremendous support and buy-in from teachers, another group that I knew had real fears and concerns. It would put so many of us out of our comfort zones for an extended period of time. I would have never have told you at the start of the school year, but I thought we would last just a few weeks. I've never been happier to be wrong. 

Now that we are at the end of what will always be remembered as a difficult school year, we are starting to think about the next one. We also know that even if we return to operations as normal, next year will be tough. Longer days, fewer workdays, fuller classes, and retraining students to regular expectations will be difficult. As challenging as this year was, we will have to start next year what these new challenges in front of us. It's easy to think about what can go wrong and what will be difficult. A big part of my job is to try to recognize problems and find solutions to them. But if this year has taught me anything, it's that you can't just focus on what can go wrong. 

When we start next school year, there will be plenty of students that welcome the sense of normalcy. Their return to activities and socialization will fill a void that has been empty for a long time. There are also plenty of students that virtual learning didn't work for. A return to classrooms and more interpersonal teaching will reactivate parts of their brains that have been asleep and you'll see those lightbulbs go off. There are freshmen this year that didn't get a real "high school experience" and perhaps a dose of that will excite them, even if it's just a few that emerge as leaders. When we mix this with new skills and abilities that we have picked up this year, there's probably good reason to focus on "what could go right" over "what could go wrong" the next time around. 

Next year, my oldest daughter will be here along with many of her friends that I know well. I can tell you that I hear in my own house a yearning for a normal school year. They are excited about high school. And I can't help but think that for me, that makes it personal to give them back every opportunity that we can. What can go right this next year? I promise I won't doubt us this time.

Thank Your People

Despite the fact that you work with people all day, being a principal can feel like a very lonely job. Your interactions come from people that you manage in some capacity, or from the families connected to them. You don't get much of a chance to interact with peers. This week I had a chance to participate in something that did give me that opportunity and it reminded me of how valuable it is to have people that listen to you. I have done some teaching and professional development work for the North Carolina Principal and Assistant Principal Association. Generally, this work centers on helping teach aspiring administrators or assistant principals that want to take on the principal role. When they contacted me to work on a different kind of project, it quickly caught my interest. This time, I wouldn't be teaching, I would just be facilitating conversations. There are members of this group with far more experience than I have and some with much less, but that's kind of the point. We meet and share ideas about how we can use our experiences to make our own jobs better. Our first event kicked off this week, and it was already a great time for everyone. 

This did get me thinking about how valuable it is to have people that are willing to share your experiences. Many of us are exhausted this time of year and if you take just a second to think about it, you probably have a person or two that you have shared that with. These are the people that are willing to listen to you complain and also the ones that you run to share good news with. We might call them friends, colleagues, or family, but collectively they are "your people." My opportunity to share with a new group of people this week reminded me that we should never take our people for granted. They keep us grounded and their support gets us through good times and bad. Throughout the school year, we celebrate different groups with a week or day to celebrate their position (Teacher Appreciation Week, Principal's Week, Assistant Principal's Week, School Counselor's Week, Social Worker Appreciation Day, and School Nurse's Day to name a few.) Today, I ask that you recognize Your People Day and thank those that have supported you through this crazy school year that we can finally see the end of on the horizon. Thank your people for listening to you, celebrating you, and supporting you this school year. We might not have made it without them!

How Things Seem

Mrs. Whitson saw me in the hallway Tuesday or Wednesday morning before school as she came to fill up her water bottle at the fountain. She asked me how I was doing and all I knew to say was, "Tired." The usual frustrations of the end of the school year along with some unique ones that seem to be beyond my ability to fix caught up with me this week. Yesterday Mrs. Batchelor told me that she was worried about me. I guess I've given off that vibe this week so if I've seemed short, I apologize. 

I generally try to be the guy that promotes being positive and looking at things from the bright side. But when you're tired and frustrated, even the best of us can fall prey to negativity. I'm not sure if you're like me, but when I get like that, I struggle to see the difference between how things seem, versus how they are. I put on blinders to the positive things around me because I focus so hard on the negative ones. 

For some reason, I started to see some of those good things yesterday. I got to hang out at our baseball game and they won in a walk-off. Scarlett Vargas finished her AP Studio Art project and I am absolutely amazed at the talent that comes from that kid. Today our tennis boys play for a chance at a state championship. Yesterday I got to see my daughter play tennis and it was a great distraction. Tomorrow night we get to have a prom again. Sometimes things seem pretty bad, but it helps to have people around you that can remind you of how things are, instead of how they seem. If you're tired or frustrated like me, take a second to see how things are, instead of how they seem. You can focus all you want on the problems, but if don't take a second to focus on the good things too, you lose your balance. Thanks to those of you that helped me find mine.

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.