(L) 1994 (R) 2018
It is my intention to share some reflections on the highs, the lows, the excitement, the routine, the successes, the failures and everything in between which I experience the course of the next 10 – 12 months, my first months as a full-time principal of a high school. Writing this journal will help me grow. Reading it may make you laugh…
13 | September | 2018
I think my biggest insight of the last two weeks is about something I am not particularly good at yet: I have to continue to learn when something is on fire and when it is not.
Here is what I mean. Considering the confluence of people in schools, the students, their families, teachers and staff, there are many, many things going on all at once. Some of them are clockwork predictable. Others are totally unpredictable. Many of them feel like crises.
But which are? Which of the events of the last few weeks would I really, with some time to breathe and some space gained, call “crises”?
Not too many of them but, when they were happening, they sure felt like they were.
In the last few weeks, my school has dealt with sudden staff changes, conversations about outside speakers, questions about student placements and other topics that, in the moment, felt critical, immediate and impending. They felt like crises.
Upon reflection, nothing was burning. Nothing was about to explode. Nothing was bearing down on the school.
And, while I think I did I fairly good job addressing each (you would have to ask the people I work with if that particular assessment is accurate), I know now that I could have taken a breath or two or twenty before jumping in. Sometimes, when I jump in, I take people with me. That can lead to feelings of chaos which are perceptions of reality, not reality.
I have to be most careful with these types of situations in the future.
And this: I remain amazed at all the people working so hard for our students. There is no way to thank them adequately for all the work they do, for the servants they are, but I sure as heck am going to try.