This is Not Goodbye

 Principal ponderings...

Dear Staff,

This is not a goodbye letter, definitely not.  It's not goodbye, it's simply a "see you real soon" letter.  Maybe I am in a little denial?  Maybe I can't believe that there are only two weeks left with students and staff.  My last few official days as the principal of Mayo.  Back when I announced that I would be leaving, this time seemed so far away, and now, it's here.  And it's hard for me to believe that I will soon be packing up my office and leaving our school for the last time. 

Thank you for letting me be your principal for the last four years.  Together, we have learned a lot.  And you have taught me so much.  Thank you for pushing me and challenging me.  Thank you for taking risks with me and for growing with me,  Thank you for giving so much of yourselves and for putting all of our students first.  Thank you for helping me keep a smile on my face and reminding me why I love my job...even when it seemed like an impossible job.

I was thinking of the Kids Deserve It quotes that we discussed four years ago.  This was one that we all agreed on as an important one and I put it on our compliment cards...

"You never know the power of a simple word or action.  The smallest stone dropped into the largest lake will leave ripples felt miles away.  We can't undervalue our impact, our reach, and our potential."

Over the past several years, I have watched so many simple words and actions from each of you.  Those simple words or actions have added up; the ripples are continuing to spread.  Your impact, my impact, our impact won't always be visible right away.  

While the last several years have been the most difficult in my career...and I am sure in all of yours...I am grateful that we survived the pandemic together.  I am grateful that I had a year before to get to know all of you, build trust, and have a foundation of connections that helped carry us through.  You may not feel like it right now, but you are stronger than you were before because of what we all went through.  Unfortunately, just as there are positive ripples that will have an impact long after this year, there are also ripples from the pandemic that will continue to be felt long after the pandemic has finally ended.  But together, you can handle anything.  My calendar for the month of June has a quote that seems fitting: "You can find joy even in the most difficult days."  Remember that.  This is our house of joy.  You won't have to go far to find it.  It's here.  It's all around this school.  It's in each of us and in our students.  

As Winnie the Pooh says, "How lucky I am...to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."  I am the luckiest principal around.  I even have a t-shirt that says that!  But remember, this is not a goodbye letter.  I am just not that kind of leader or person.  I love the connections I have built at each of the schools I have worked in.  And I nurture those connections and keep them going, long after I am gone.  While I might not physically be in the building next year, I am always just a phone call, text, email, or visit away.

Thank you again for everything.  What you did over the last several years for our students is nothing short of amazing.  You are true education heroes.  Keep being amazing for our kids. Mayo is an amazing place to learn and grow!  I have so many wonderful memories that I will take with me.  I love you all and will miss you.

Sincerely,
Liz Garden

Currently reading:

I was excited to get the current edition of Katie Novak's UDL Now! book.  Looking forward to reading this new version and joining into her online course this summer. 

Next up...waiting to get this amazing book in the mail...

Have you been gathering your summer reading pile yet?

Events during the last two weeks:

Monday - Kindergarten co-principals for the day! Final Student Council Meeting @ 8:00am

Tuesday - Gale Free Librarian visits 5th grade, 3rd grade Selectman visit, KD Author Celebration @ 2:00, ELPAC Meeting @ 6:00 in the library

Wednesday - Roy Lane presentation to 5th Grade

Friday - Field Day and Book Swap Day!  Last day of kindergarten!

Monday - Field Day raindate, Kindergarten screening

Tuesday - Kindergarten screening

Wednesday - Kindergarten screening, 5th Grade Clap Out

Thursday - Last day of school, 12:30 dismissal, Move Up Day, Final all school assembly, Mayo Staff Party @ 5:00 at Seven Saws

Great things I noticed:

• The 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade concerts were amazing!!  Thank you Mrs. Popek for organizing them and for doing such a fun theme of rock and roll.  The gym was full of joy Friday morning.  I took so many pictures and videos, will have to put it all together in a movie, but for now here's a few pictures. 
  

  
• The end of the year social was a huge hit!  We had so many people attend that they sold out of tacos! 

  

  
  
  

Fearlessly Authentic

 Principal ponderings...

Last week, I had a Dove chocolate and loved what I discovered in the wrapper.  Be fearlessly authentic.  As I think back over my four years here at Mayo, and actually all my years as an administrator, this is what I have strived to be.  I only know how to be me.  To be fearlessly authentic and real.  I hope that I have inspired all of you to be you no matter what.  Over the past several years, educators have been pushed to their breaking points.  And many of us have been broken.  What I hope more than anything to leave you with...stay true to you, be real, be fearlessly authentic.

People might not always agree with you.  School leaders.  Other teachers.  Community members.  Parents.  People will try to change you.  You might even think you need to change yourself.  You might think you need to fit into someone else's mold.  But our kids need us to be fearlessly authentic.  Kids have the best "fakeness" radar.  They know when adults are not being real.  And they will tell you!

As I savored my Dove chocolate and reread the wrapper, I also thought about how much courage it takes to be fearlessly authentic.  One might even go so far as to say you must be authentically fearless to be fearlessly authentic.  You like what I did there?  I can't help but play around with words.  Remember, words of affirmation is definitely my love language!  Don't be afraid to be you.  It takes courage to be an educator these days.  Between the pandemic and the racial crisis and the equity issues and communities divided and politics and school shootings and high stakes testing and...well you can Mad Lib your own fill in the blank endings to this sentence...but between all of that stuff educators have to suit up and wear their emotional and mental armor every day.  While at the same time making sure that they leave a crack in the armor for their students to see them and connect with them.  We have the incredibly difficult challenge of being brave AND being authentic.

As you finish up this extremely difficult year (who knew it was possible for this year to be more difficult than last year), make sure to find yourself under your armor.  Reconnect with your students before we send them off on their own for the summer.  I know I lost myself a little bit this year, but I am fighting my way back out into the open.  I am trying to find that balance of being authentic and also being brave in the face of all the things in education and our world that are trying to change me.  

Be brave.

Be real.

Be fearless.

Be authentic.

It will be the most important lesson that you teach your students this year.  (And it will take the least amount of planning time.)

Currently reading:

I have been enjoying reading the sequel to Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper.  The book is called Out of My Heart and has the awesome main character Melody, who is a young non verbal girl confined to a wheelchair.  

I was also excited to get Donalyn Miller's newest collaboration with Teri Lesesne...The Joy of Reading.  Of course I dove into that one as soon as I took it out of the box when the delivery came! 

Events this week:

Monday - Happy Memorial Day! No school

Tuesday - STAR Window opens, Panorama for 3rd-5th Window opens, Grade 5 Transition Meetings w/Mountview @ 3:30

Wednesday - Final Staff Meeting @ 8:00, Kindergarten Author's Tea @ 2:00

Thursday - CST Meeting @ 8:00 and 8:30, Kindergarten Author's Tea @ 2:00, Girls' Night @ 6:30 in the library

Friday - 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade concerts, 5th grade slideshow celebration, Kindergarten Author's Tea @ 2:00, End of the Year PTA Party and BOGO Book Fair from 6:00-8:00

Great things I noticed last week:

• Loved catching 1st graders reading aloud to each other in the library. 
  
  
  
• Representatives from DESE asked to visit Mayo and see our awesome teachers at work.  They are rolling out a new "look for" tool that combines early learning best practices, like playful learning and collaboration, with content standards and SEL guidelines.  They were thrilled with what they saw happening in our 1st grade and 3rd grade classrooms.  Thank you teachers for opening up your rooms on a Friday before a long weekend! It was an added bonus when the principal for the day told them..."yeah, I love going to this school." :)

  

  
  
• Principal Collins totally represented this month's core value of courage so well on her day.  That kids is fearless and loved visiting students in all grades!  She also was quick to tell people that no they couldn't have a raise, but they could have Monday off for Memorial Day! 

  

  
  

  

  
  
• Lots of tears on Friday as 2nd grade said goodbye and good luck to Mr. O.  He starts physical therapy school this week.  And we sure hope he comes back to visit! 

  

Check it out:

Seems appropriate as we enter the month of June...

After the tragedy in Texas, I couldn't agree more with this that a friend posted...

See the Worth, Be the Light

 Principal ponderings...

When the video below came across my social media feed, I was listened to the commencement speech over and over.  Talk about inspirational.  A non verbal young lady with autism using her voice, a text to speech resource, to give the commencement speech at her college graduation.  It made me think of Melody, the character in the book Out of My Mind.  She was trapped in her body, not able to communicate at first, but then she found her voice, a way to communicate and was able to compete in the school trivia bowl.  It also made me think of many of the students I worked with in my early years as an educator.  I taught several non-verbal children with autism or traumatic brain injuries.  I used to imagine who those amazing kids would grow into.  Would they find their voice?  Would they make their mark on the world.  As a young, naive, hopelessly optimistic beginning teacher...I believed in them and believed that they were more than their disability.  

In her speech, she encourages everyone to see the worth in everyone you serve.  As Mr. Rogers shared, she also encourages everyone to "live a life of service."  As educators, that is exactly what we do.  We are living out our life of service.  Even though this has proven to be an extremely hard year in education, we are all still showing up everyday to serve the little humans in front of us.  We must see the worth in each and every one of our students.  Some days that is easy to do.  On other days, that is a challenge.  Sometimes we need to remind ourselves or remind each other to "be the light," to see the worth in each student.  

My first year in education, at the end of the year, I wrote a letter to the parents of each of my students.  I was the para who became the long term substitute teacher in a language-based classroom.  I had nine students ranging from severe ADHD (think eating through pencils and chairs severe) to traumatic brain injuries to autism and seizure disorder.  In the letters, I talked to the parents about all the amazing qualities that I saw in their child.  And I painted a picture of what I imagined they would be when they grew up.  The little girl who was mostly non verbal unless music was involved, I imagined that some day we would see her performing on stage with a piano.  The boy who had a traumatic brain injury as a result of an injury at birth, I imagined him as a scientist discovering new medicines and also keeping everyone laughing with his jokes that you sometimes had to wait a while for the punchline.  I remember the parents were grateful that I saw the worth in each of their children.  I saw beyond their disability.  I saw their strengths.  And most importantly, I saw the their potential future success.  

This is the time of year in a normal year when we begin to run out of steam.  We might lose our patience with our students and with each other.  We are beyond exhausted.  And our students, no matter their abilities or disabilities, are gearing up for summer which means we see all kinds of behaviors and issues surfacing or resurfacing.  So watch the video.  Remember that we are living a life of service as educators.  We get to be the light for so many.  It is our responsibility to see the worth in every student.  

What will you do this week to see the potential that is in front of you every day?

Currently reading:

I started reading a new book this weekend and couldn't put it down.  I am halfway through it.  It's called Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted.  It's about a young woman who has leukemia and survives, but has to learn to live after cancer so she goes on a 15,000 mile road trip. It was a book that I would have just stayed in bed reading all day, but I realized I needed to do things like feed my children and shower! 

I got a new professional book in the mail that I was excited to start skimming through this weekend.  It might be my favorite title...Rebellious Read Alouds: Inviting Conversations About Diversity with Children's Books.  Basically the most perfect book for me!  It's full of lesson ideas so let me know if you want to borrow it. 

Events this week:

Monday - 4th grade enrichment canceled - Raptor Lady sick, PTA Meeting in the library at 6:30

Tuesday - CST at 8:30, 4th grade Math MCAS

Wednesday - Liz in PLT meeting from 9-10, Half day dismissal at 12:20, Play Day! Working on placement in the afternoon

Thursday - Optional meeting w/Dr. Reilly @ 8:00am in the library, 4th grade Math MCAS, Finalist Public Interviews from 4-7 in the library

Friday - Paws Pantry Spirit Day! Collecting money for MBB Foundation and ALS

Check it out:

Check out this blog post from The Six Shifts authors about decodable word lists and activities to try: https://thesixshifts.com/2022/05/independent-practice-with-decodable-word-lists/?utm_source=getresponse&utm_medium=email&keywords=&utm_content=Independent%20practice%20with%20decodable%20word%20lists&utm_campaign=Reader-Centered%20Classrooms

Check out this publisher, https://www.boystownpress.org/audience/children-teens/storybooks/, Thank you Kate White for sharing, they publish some great picture books covering important SEL/Executive Function topics.  I will be ordering several sets for us!

2-4-6-8...I Know Who I Appreciate!

 Principal ponderings...

I am sorry to be missing Teacher Appreciation Week.  I hope the PTA makes sure to treat you extra special this week.  And I hope that your students and parents find ways to share their appreciation with you all week.  

I hope you know that I appreciate each of you this week.  But more importantly, I appreciate you every day of the year besides this week.  I appreciate you on the Friday afternoons before vacation weeks.  I appreciate you on the Mondayest Mondays.  I appreciate you on the days that caffeine helps you get through after worrying about students kept you up all night.  I appreciate you on the days when you have an awesome lesson win and on the days when you have epic lesson fails.  Thank you for today and all the days that came before and all the days that will follow until the last day of school.

As Josh Funk, the author, said so perfectly in a tweet...

It’s #TeacherAppreciationWeek - but if you’re not appreciating your teachers EVERY week, you’re doing it wrong.

— Josh Funk (@joshfunkbooks) May 3, 2022

Here are some coupon codes for you if you are looking for new books...

 

A perfect message for all of you...

Currently reading:

While recovering, I have had time to do some reading.  I loved reading Dear Student by Elly Swartz.  She is a MA author, and I have had a chance to connect with her through Twitter.  She would be a great author to bring to the school next year.  

I am currently reading Rescue by Jennifer Nielsen.  I read her other books...Words on Fire and Resistance.  I love her historical fiction books.  

Events this week:

Monday - Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!  1st grade enrichment - Birds of Prey

Tuesday - 4th grade enrichment - Sound

Wednesday - 3rd grade Math MCAS, Team time from 8-9am to begin placement work - Lindsay will be putting placement cards in your mailboxes

Friday - 3rd grade Math MCAS

Monday - PD Day, No school for students

Check it out:

I have been missing being in the building.  Hoping to get back next week and hear laughter...

Making Time

 Principal ponderings...

Hermione's time turner.  I have been thinking about that magical tool lately.  If you have read the third Harry Potter book (If you haven't we need to talk!), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, then you know about Hermione's time turner.  The third book is my favorite in the series.  

The time turner has this inscription in it:

So there is no outrunning the sun for us.  No time turner that let's us redo the last hour when you taught math and teach reading...basically double booking our teaching and learning time within the same amount of time in the day.  Hermione used her time turner to take double the courses at Hogwarts.  Wouldn't it be nice to be able to turn back time so that we would could basically double our time?!  We always say there is never enough time.

Unfortunately, I don't have time turner necklaces to hand out to all of you.  But we do have a staff meeting this week.  And we can put our heads together to think differently about time and scheduling.  I want us to look at the whole day schedule and try to figure out how we can create time, rearrange times, transform our time.  As we continue to come out of the pandemic, we have the chance to think differently, to be creative about how we utilize the hours and minutes in our school day.

Looking forward to seeing what ideas you will discuss and brainstorm.  How will you take time to make time?

Currently reading:

I listened to the book All American Boys by Jason Reynolds.  Can't believe it took me this long to read this one.  I love all of his books.  This book is about police brutality, black vs white, high school students trying to understand a situation that happened between a black student and the police officer brother of a white student. 

I was excited to get an advanced reading copy of Cynthia Lord's book Marco Polo, Brave Explorer.  Emerson and I are reading that one at home. 

I can't wait to dive into the book I got from the book fair...Rescue by Jennifer Neilson.  I have read her other historical fiction books and loved them so I think I will enjoy this one. 

Events this week:

**Happy National Assistant Principal Week!  Thank goodness we have Mrs. Ramos at Mayo!!

Monday - Laura at AP Conference in Franklin

Tuesday - 5th grade ELA MCAS, K enrichment program in the art room, CST Meetings at 8 and 8:30, PTA meeting in the library @ 6:30

Wednesday - Staff Meeting in the library, 5th Grade Visit to Mountview, Community Reader Day! Report Cards available to parents 

Thursday - 5th grade ELA MCAS, Liz in PLT meeting from 9-11, Wendy O'Leary free Zoom workshop for parents @ 7:00pm

Great things I noticed last week:

• Thank you Chris and Nicole for helping several students during our after school math club.  Last week I got to see some problem solving involving Taco Bell and addition practice with dominos. 
  
  
  
• Friday was an amazing and exhausting day with a principal for the day and our author visit!  Cynthia Lord was awesome!  The 5th graders that interviewed her asked terrific questions.  Her assemblies reached every grade level.  And she even took the time to visit with K writers in Mrs. McSweeney's classroom. 

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

Check it out:

Everyone needs a Peptoc!

 Principal ponderings...

At this point, maybe you have already discovered the most amazing hotline ever.  About two weeks ago, a kindergarten teacher from California, worked with her students to create something they are calling the "Peptoc Hotline." 

There is a phone number and you can call and select a different number to get different versions of pep talks from 5 year olds.  What a brilliant idea!  I always say if you need to turn your day around, just walk into any of our kindergarten classrooms.  Kindergarteners have a way of making people smile, being so honest, and helping people without even realizing it.  Of course, K teachers may have very different thoughts about that!

A week ago I presented at the MSAA PK-8 Spring Conference.  My presentation was titled "Books Make Us Better" and I shared how books and conversations around books can help us with social emotional learning.  But I started the presentation by calling the Peptoc Hotline.  If you press one of the numbers, you get to listen to "kids laughing with delight."  And another number gives you life advice from kindergarteners.  You can also press a number and get words of encouragement in Spanish.  When my first few slides were about the uncomfortable statistic that "1 in 6 US children aged 2 to 8 years has a diagnosed mental, behavioral or developmental disorder," starting off by calling a hotline created by kids for everyone seemed like the absolute best way to begin my talk.  

Working in an elementary school, we have a built in hotline in all of our classrooms.  Kids have the ability to say just the right thing at just the right time.  We have the chance to create opportunities everyday where kids are "laughing with delight."  It's ok for adults to admit that we need words of encouragement from children.  We all need pep talks.  I know last week I definitely needed them.  Thank you for the messages and texts and emails and videos of kids and cards.  They all helped!

So this week...if you need a smile or a pick me up...just dial 707-998-8410.  I am pretty sure I will be calling the hotline every day!

or 

What sort of pep talks will you receive from your own students this week?  Stop and think about those moments.  Jot them down in a journal or on a sticky note.  Share them with a friend or your team.  Those pep talk moments are powerful and necessary and worth remembering and sharing.

Currently reading:

While I was sick, you would have thought that I would have spent a lot of time reading, but that just wasn't the case.  I didn't have the energy or brain power to read.  Slowly climbing out of the reading slump I was in.  I have been finishing up reading the book She Leads: The Women's Guide to a Career in Educational Leadership.  Definitely great to read stories from so many different female leaders across the country.  

I am trying to get myself to finish reading Sticky Notes, but the subject of a parent suffering from Alzheimer's clearly hits close to home.  Going to keep pushing through.

And I picked I Love You, Michael Collins back up to finish reading that book.  It's a book that takes place in 1969 and the main character is the one who chose to write to the astronaut who has to stay on the ship instead of walking on the moon. 

Events this week:

Monday - Book Fair set up all week in the library! Marvelous Monday - March Madness Fun!

Tuesday - CST Meeting @ 8:00, 2nd grade Enrichment - Physical Changes of Matter, 5th grade F&P training

Wednesday - Laura in virtual Team Chair Meeting from 8:15-10

Thursday - 5th Grade F&P training, Liz in virtual Curriculum Meeting from 8-10

Friday - Internet Safety Presentation w/Ellen Miller @ 10:15

Saturday - Book Fair open for families 5:00-7:00pm

Sunday - Book Fair open for families 9:00-11:00am

Great things I noticed last week:

I know I missed out on a lot of awesome things going on in your classrooms last week.  Excited to be back in the building and back in classrooms this week!

Check it out:

Such an important reminder... as we enter spring...never stop planting...

Marvelous Mondays in March!

Principal ponderings...

Since March is long month with lots of Mondays...it's time for Marvelous Mondays in March!  Get ready for some special treats and surprises each Monday! 

Currently reading:

I was excited to get some new books in the mail from Bookelicious!  The read aloud I shared on Friday was perfect for our core value of friendship this month - A Friend Like You. 

I got another picture book called Lala's Words.  It's a great story about a little girl with lots of energy who has a way with plants. 

And I got this funny book about a bear, a hare and some underwear - Something's Wrong!

Have you watched the documentary about the cave rescue in Thailand?  The one where the boys from the soccer team got trapped with their coach in a cave?  If you haven't watched it, I recommend it; it's quite and amazing story.  We had one of our parents come in and talk about the biology behind the rescue mission and keeping the boys alive.  I was excited to get this book that talks all about the rescue, All Thirteen.

Events this week:

Monday - Marvelous Monday - For a "soup-er" staff...enjoy soup, drinks, and dessert for lunch!  No more lunch in the gym.  Everyone will eat in the cafeteria.

Tuesday - 8:30 - Liz at superintendent meet and greet, 1st grade enrichment program - Sound with Acton Discovery Museum, 4th grade F &P training, ELA Community of Practice group from 4:00-5:30

Wednesday - Staff Meeting changed to during the half day on 3/16, Liz at superintendent meet and greet @ 8:30

Thursday - 4th grade F&P training, meet and greet at Mayo for one of the superintendent candidates from 10:30-11:15 in the library, Liz G at MSAA Conference for the afternoon

Friday - Liz G presenting at MSAA Conference

Great things I noticed last week:

Caught some 3rd graders reading with K buddies for Read Across America Day! 

• It was a tough day Friday as we said goodbye to Nurse Coe.  She will be truly missed!  The "L Team" in the office is now down to a trio. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Check it out:

How can we show those around us that we care? (Of course we know chocolate always helps!)