The fall is all but upon us. The new school year is as well.
My excitement for the next nine months is real and authentic and genuine and I just used three words that all mean the same thing (hello, West Wing fans). Please read that as how legitimately pumped I am standing on the precipice of a new year.
This school year marks my 29th in high school education. Wow.
Before my 27th year – the 2019-2020 school year, I would have told (and likely did tell) anyone who asked that I had seen it all, that there were few surprises left in store for me. I was still loving the work (still do!) and the students and serving the faculty and staff I am blessed to serve, but some of the tropes and patterns were expected and almost predictable.
Then: pandemic.
Then: Emergency Remote Learning.
Then: quarantines.
Then: the predictable became unpredictable.
Over the course of the last two school years, those of us in education have reimagined almost everything about how we do what we do. It was a massive and gut-wrenching undertaking. It was immediate. It was necessary. It was exhausting.
But that’s the past.
The present is excitement and energy and enthusiasm.
Four years ago, when I joined the staff of my beloved school, I shared a Guide to Me so that folks would have a sense of who I was and how I anticipated doing things. I was an outsider. I thought an introduction was in order. This year, I updated that document by slimming it way down. I shared with our faculty and staff my Two Simple Goals:
Goal One – Support, encourage and inspire our adults so they can support, encourage and inspire our students.
Goal Two – Define the WHY for our school for the next five years.
Keep it simple, Stupid, I am telling myself. Keep it very simple.
Do these two things and the 2021-2022 school year will be a success.
This is where I begin again.