Reflectous Interruptous

First Trimester down and strapping on the helmet doesn't come close to what sums it up. Do I love the transition from teacher to administration? Absolutely! Do I love the pety issues that enter my office on a daily basis? The responsible answer to that would be, 'there are no pety issues.' The actual answer would be, 'we create problems for the sake of the existence of problems.'

One of the issues that looms when any new person steps in to the position of authority... trust. If I had to define where my staff stood after a trimester of working with me, it would have to be 'waiting to exhale'. While they see that I'm a principal who understands the teacher point of view (after spending 17 years in the classroom), they have experienced a former principal with an administrator point of view (who had 3 years of classroom experience) and they keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. One teacher summed it up for me in a conversation: "We like what you stand for and how you work with us, but we keep waiting to be stabbed in the back." So there's some work to be done. Trust is an issue of time,... or staff parties. Perhaps both.

"I heard that you're trying to cancel Halloween," came a comment from a parent in the community.
"What?" I couldn't believe that I had such power.
Having made some simple changes to the day to day operations of the school, one of them came with the way the parade for our Halloween celebration took place. My design needs some work because I failed to anticipate parents standing in the middle of the hall to snap pictures, instead of going to the gymnasium where ALL parents could take pictures. The hallway debacle led to a mish mash of confusion and came close to requiring the assistance of an NBTS (National Bureau of Transportation) agent to assess the flow of traffic. In the end though, every child had a chance to parade in front of their peers and eat an absurd amount of chocolate. How this turned into my cancellation of Halloween I have no idea, but if the parents continue to cause traffic violations,... so let it be written, so let it be done. Maybe I should run for political office next.

"Do you miss the classroom?" many people ask me.
I have to think about it for a few seconds, but the answer is, No. I don't miss the classroom, but I do miss the direct impact on kids. I miss the interaction with the select few that were in my room. I miss the direct connection to the families. As the principal, I get to know many more, but it's not on that deep level - at least not yet. After all, it's only been a few months.

What Comes Around

Trying to decide how to spend the remaining days of summer can be exhausting. When should I start the changing of the internal clock? When do I acknowledge a daily scheduled? When is it time to draft that back to school letter? When is it time to put away the T-shirts and shorts and pull out the dress slacks and shirts?

"I have this week! That's IT!" Kim announces as she slides into her morning coffee. The public school system begins back to school after Labor Day, while our private school system is on it's own to decide when it's best to hit the hallways and stuff the lockers once again. At Kim's school,... the teachers begin next Monday.

An awkwardness blankets our mornings in August as I relish the full month of freedom still to be enjoyed, while Kim begins full blown readiness. She mutters quite a bit about going back early, but deep down (usually by the bottom of her coffee cup), she is ready and excited to get started - as am I,... in another month.

There is some excitement coming in September - It's National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and Tate Publishing is kicking things off with a nationwide media blitz. More on what this will entail as information becomes known.

Short Thoughts are Simple to Process

Well,... I'm back. It took me a while to finally set down and process some thoughts since so much has been happening over the course of the past two months.

Where to begin? (Long, lingering pause while I stare out the window wondering what I'm doing sitting at a computer when summer is right outside).

I'll get back to you real soon - got to go!