The Best Day Ever!

 Principal pondering...

Last week, some of us got an email from a parent thanking us for what we did for her daughter on her birthday.  The student came home and told her mom that it was "her most favorite day ever in her life!"  We are still surviving a pandemic.  In a hybrid model, with only half of our students in front of us while the rest are in Brady Bunch boxes on our screens.  We have to keep most of our faces hidden behind masks.  Kids don't get to be close to each other and there's not really any high fiving or hugging happening.  Yet, we somehow managed to help this little girl have the best day ever.

How did we do that?  How can any kid feel like these are great days?  Us adults...I know I am not alone when I say that over the past year I have had some of my least favorite days ever, some of my worst days.  Many times I did not want to get out of bed.  Many times I cried myself to sleep.  Many days I thought...just get through it.  I am sick of washing and wearing masks.  My hands are raw from washing and sanitizing.  I just want to be able to hug every kid and have the biggest lobby dance party ever.  Yet, we somehow managed to help a little girl have the best day of her life.  Simply by being here and paying attention.  Her present was our presence in her life.

That thought is going to keep me going.  Next week when we return to full in person learning...our goal is to have more kids feel like it was the best day ever.  I know it won't always feel that way for us, but we have to remember that our students don't see our after hours stress or our middle of the night panic moments.  Next week, most of our students are going to see you in front of them, not on a screen.  Most of our students are going to see their friends in person for the first time in a long time.  They are going to be doing school almost the way they are used to from a year ago.  Yes, there will still be masks and hand sanitizer and reminders to "space out."  But we have a chance to give them the best day ever.  On April 5th and all the days after that.

While it will be nice to have more in person faces listening to your module 4, lesson 12 math lesson, and it will be a welcome change to not have to chase kids back on camera, remember that it's your presence in their lives that is going to make the best day ever.  And we of course want kids to continue to learn about glued sounds and the difference between fiction and non fiction, but it will be how we interact with them and how we show we care for them that will make these last months of the year the best days ever.

This year, we often find ourselves running on fumes.  Let their enthusiasm, their joy, their energy fuel you. 

Now go have the best day ever!

Currently reading:

On Sunday, I read Long Way Down.  It's a novel told in verse by the amazing Jason Reynolds.  It's about a young Black kid who feels like he has to seek revenge for his older brother's death.  And during an elevator ride he encounters several ghosts, friends and family members that were victims of shootings.  Probably not for our students to read, but you might be interested in reading it.  

I also got some great new books delivered from our virtual Scholastic Book Fair.  Can't wait to do some read alouds or book talk some of these...

Events this week:

Wednesday - Last remote Wednesday! Staff meeting @ 8:00am, Liz in a PLT Meeting from 12:30-2:30

Thursday - Masked Reader Event - virtual family event and announcing Read-a-Thon winners - 7:00pm

Friday - Rest up and get ready for Monday!

Check it out:

How true is this?!...

Unfinished Learning

 Principal ponderings...

Here's a thought....the kids will be okay.  The adults - well that's another story.  But our kids are going to be okay.  They have persevered.  They have surprised us.  They have shown us that they can learn in the classroom and at home.  Yet, everywhere you look, people keep talking about and writing about "learning loss."

I am part of a group through NAESP called "Innovative Principals Circle."  Principals from across country gather online once a month to share ideas and support each other.  The other night I was listening to different principals talk about how we are handling "learning loss."  I loved how one principal said they were choosing to look at it as "unfinished learning."  Yes.  That makes more sense to me than "learning loss."

Our kids have unfinished learning.  Lucky for us our kids are elementary age so their learning is always unfinished for us.  That's why they finish a year and then get to come back for more learning the following year.  This year, due to a pandemic that affected the entire world, there just happens to be more unfinished learning than normal.  

But the kids will be okay.  We will meet them wherever they are and help them work towards "finishing" their learning.  (Side note...I don't feel like we ever finish learning, so let's stop worrying about a deadline.). And whatever learning we don't finish this year, well we will be back at this whole educating kids thing again next year.

You may have seen this going around on social media.  

Thought it was appropriate to share with all of you:

In twenty years' time...

People will not ask the children of 2020 if they caught up with their studies.

They will not ask them what grades they made, despite the year off of school.

They will ask them with wonder ‘what was it like?’

They will ask them ‘how did you cope?’

‘How did you feel?’

‘What do you remember of those days?”

They will listen in awe to the tales of clapping on doorsteps for the medical workers.

They will sit open-mouthed to hear of daily walks being the only life we saw and how much we missed human contact and gatherings.

They will be amazed to know about empty supermarkets, online concerts, birthdays spent on a screen and a life lived inside.

They will listen, then sit back with amazement and say, ‘Wow. You went through so much.’

So think about what you would like your children to take away from this whole year.

Tell them they are not behind.

Tell them they are not missing out.

Tell them they are extremely special indeed and they will be forever made stronger by this unique time.

Tell them catching up is not even a thing because they have grown so much in so many other ways.

Remind them too of the fun stuff, the family jigsaws, the window rainbows, the zoom bingo.

The feeling of safety and togetherness amidst the chaos.

Let them take that thought with them through life.

Change the narrative now and it will travel far.

Tell the children they are not behind.

They are special.

They are special.

—Donna Ashworth

Let's change the narrative, our kids do not have learning loss, they simply have unfinished learning.

Currently reading:

I was convinced by 5th graders to start the Wings of Fire series so I am into book 1 and enjoying it so far.  I am also working on finishing Unplugged by Gordon Korman.  And I only have 4 hours left of listening to Obama's The Promised Land.

I also got a great new book from Scholastic called Standing on Her Shoulders: A Celebration of Women.  It's a wonderful picture book that is described as "a stunning love letter to the important women who shape us."

Events this week:

**Virtual Scholastic Book Fair all week, 2nd week of our virtual fair

Tuesday - SIMCO Meeting @ 3:30

Wednesday - Green pod furniture and 1st grade will be moved into rooms, Liz in PLT meeting from 12:30-2:30, 3rd-5th Grade Bookelicious Info Event @ 2:30, no staff meeting today, but I may try to meet with a few grade level teams

Saturday - Custodians will be working from 8:00-12:00 to finish distributing furniture and setting up the gym cafeteria space.

Check it out:

Interesting read from teen's perspectives of living through the pandemic: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/08/learning/teens-pandemic-art.html?smid=tw-share

And this...

Earrings

 Principal ponderings...

I have always loved earrings.  I am pretty sure I get that from my mom.  She was always a big jewelry fan and always loved wearing bold, colorful, different jewelry.  I got my ears pierced when I was 4 years old, but it wasn't until high school and college that I started to use earrings as a form of expression.  Little known fact about me...I used to have a lot of piercings in my ears.  And I wore all kinds of hoops, studs, and funky earrings.  These days...I have scaled back and only wear one earring in each ear, but I still try to find and wear all kinds of fun earrings.

Why am I talking about earrings?  Well in a crazy year where connections and relationships are even more important, my earrings have helped me realize how crucial connections with students are right now.  It's not every year that 4th and 5th grade boys can list off many of the different earrings I own!  When they started talking to me about my earrings during lunch, I realized...they are paying attention.  Definitely need to capitalize on that.  So I am very conscious of the earrings I pick out to wear and sometimes the earrings have a story that goes along with them so I share that story with students.  For example, I told a 5th grade class that I own a pair of earrings where one is an exclamation point and one is a question mark.  When I was a high school biology teacher, I would wear those earrings when I was going to give a "pop quiz."  Kids figured it out and news would travel fast as soon as someone spotted me wearing those earrings.  

Since a majority of the time, students are seeing me and hearing me through video with my morning announcements, it's clear that they only see a small part of me.  My earring collection is coming in handy this year!  

I am not saying that the way to connect with students is to go buy a bunch of earrings.  Trust me it's an expensive addiction!  (If you haven't checked out https://thesunriseshopnesloney.com/ yet and you want some awesome earrings...check her site out!) But I am saying find something, whatever it is, to connect with kids.  They are paying attention.  They are craving that attention.  They want to connect.  They want to see you and they want you to see them.  They want to hear your stories and they need to be able to share their stories with us.  

How did you connect with our students today?

Currently reading:

It was so good to have several days over the vacation where I could take time to sit in my favorite reading chair or lie on my couch and read!  I finished A Home for Goddesses and Dogs.  It's another great story by Leslie Connor.  There is loss in it, but it's also full of love and belonging and a family taking care of each other.  If anyone wants to borrow it, let me know.  And it was fitting that I started reading Gordon Korman's book, Unplugged this week.  Always love how he creates different characters.  This book takes place at a Mind and Wellness Retreat in the middle of nowhere Arkansas...no devices allowed!  And I just read Allergic this weekend, a perfect graphic novel for so many of our students who are frustrated with being allergic to different things. 

Events this week:

Monday - Happy March!  Announcement of our March Read-a-Thon!

Tuesday - Read Across America Day! (But really it's Read Across America Month!)

Wednesday - Remote learning day, Staff Meeting @ 8:00am, Liz in a leadership meeting from 12:30-2:30, Laura in a team chair meeting from 2:30-3:30

**Read-a-Thon will take place next week March 8-March 14.

Check it out:

Saturday morning I joined an EdCamp with several teachers from Mayo and educators from across the state and across the country.  Here is a newsletter where there is a link to the collaborative notes that were taken during the event.  So much amazing information shared!

And because Gerry Brooks always knows how to say it better... https://youtu.be/xmsoFewV1Fw