11 | April | 2019
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…
I have learned a great number of things over the course of this first year at Mullen High School. As we are – amazingly – at mid April on the calendar and the end of the school year is somehow in sight, I decided to detail a few of the kernels of knowledge that are foremost on my mind going in to the home stretch:
- When a school gets to spring, two things are happening simultaneously: the balance between wrapping up the current year and planning for the next. For everyone but especially, I think, for those in leadership, this is a significant tightrope to walk. It’s a challenging being present to this year while planning for the next.
- No matter how many times I have told myself that I am aware some of the decisions I make are not going to please everyone I am still disappointed in myself that I actually cannot please everyone.
- Being in the classroom as a teacher is – in my opinion – very important for my personal growth as an administrator. The two roles – for me – go hand-in-hand.
- I am liking snow and the havoc it causes less and less.
- I must be more careful with how I communicate my plans and my ideas for the school. I have had occasion this week to question whether what I am saying to the staff and faculty here is conveying what I mean completely.
And have I mentioned lately that this is HARD work?
It is. It is hard work.
And great work.