The Journal presents my weekly reflections on being a private, Catholic school principal during what promises to be a year filled with energy, excitement, challenges and possibilities…
… (teachers) have been asked to do the improbable. They have done it incredibly well. They have done it impossibily well.
Appreciate.
This is a nice word. “I appreciate you” is a nice phrase. Appreciation is a nice sentiment.
Nice.
This week, schools across the United States celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week. In the opinion of this high school educator and administrator, a guy with almost 30 years experience, there has never been a year in which teachers should be more appreciated.
Teachers have been asked to react, reevaluate and redesign every piece of everything they have accomplished over the course of their professional lives no matter how short or long those lives have been. They have been asked to do this in the midst of actually doing it. They have been asked to pivot, change and adapt. They have been asked to put themselves on a particular version of the front lines. They have been asked to become things they never anticipated being: webcam operators, online teachers and internet educators.
They have been asked to do the improbable.
In my estimation, they have done it incredibly well. They have done it impossibly well.
Do I appreciate the amazing work of the faculty and staff of the school I serve.
Hell, yes, I do.
But I need a different word. I need a better word.
“Appreciation” is a nice word.
Awe is better.
I am in awe of teachers.
You should be, too.
The number of positive cases in our school remained fairly consistent this week. Yay? The wild card, however, is the real and understandable pressure of AP Exams. That College Board, anticipating quarantine and other issues, offers different administration of these tests (as they have always done) does not carry much weight with some families who are already frustrated with quarantines, the pandemic and disruptions in their students’ lives. This has been a significant and draining challenge to manage… and we’ve got a week and a half of APs to go!