Embracing Each Other's Stories

 Principal ponderings...

We all have a story.  Some of our stories have happy endings, some don't have an ending yet.  Some of us have similar stories and some have stories unlike anyone else.  Every week I listen to student or staff stories.  Sometimes it's just a text message that tells me a story or gives me a peek into a story.  Sometimes it's a conversation in the hallway that tells me a funny story.  And sometimes it's a closed door conversation that tells me a story of struggle or sadness.  

After hearing one of these stories this week, one that is a difficult and sad story, I had to try to explain to other students about this concept of everyone having different stories.  At the same time, I was thinking about our Choose To Be Nice core value for the month of November, Acceptance.  I feel like this is such an important core value to be talking about with our students, but also a difficult topic to talk about, especially in our society today.  There's so much divisiveness, so much of one group not accepting another group, or one person looking at someone who is different from him with a look of judgment or contempt.  Especially when someone else's story is so different from your own.

When I tried to wrap my head around how to explain and reassure students about a situation, I kept coming back to the idea of us all having different stories.  Using that language, I think the students understood what I was trying to tell them without sharing too much or divulging confidential information.  They could understand that they each had different life stories.

I wish society could take that same approach.  Of course, I think I have the benefit of being able to have these tough conversations with kids.  Adults have a harder time stepping back and seeing the whole picture.  Most adults don't get to have kids-eye-views on a daily basis.  Kids seem to just get it.  Kids are accepting.  I actually had the thought that the topic of acceptance would be a tough one this month, but that's because sadly, I am an adult.  But my conversation this week renewed my faith in the concept of acceptance.  

When you look up synonyms of acceptance, one word that pops up keeps sticking in my head.  It's the word embrace.  And when I hear the word embrace, I can't help but think of a hug.  (And then of course an image of Olaf saying "I like warm hugs" automatically appears in my head!) When we think about acceptance, maybe we can think about hugging.  I don't necessarily mean the actual physical act of hugging, although that is the ultimate form of acceptance in my book.  I mean that as we think and talk about acceptance, I feel like we are thinking and talking about the concept of wrapping our arms around each other.  Accepting each other for all of our differences and similarities.  Wrapping our arms around each other's stories.  Not judging the plot line or the characters or the different elements of our stories.  But embracing them.

Looking forward to hearing how you will talk with students about acceptance, about embracing each other's stories.

There are a few books listed in the Choose To Be Nice book list, but there are so many more great books about acceptance.  Here are a few that I own.  Let me know if you want to borrow any this month.

 

Currently reading:

I finished Finding Junie Kim and loved it.  The Korean War is not a part of history that I knew much about.  I highly recommend this book if you are interested in that part of history.  I also loved that it was based off of true events in the author's family history.  I had abandoned a book on Audible that I just went back to this week...Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World.  

I am also excited to finally dive into I Love You, Micheal Collins.  Especially on a rainy Saturday! 

After I finish the other Audible book, I am going to be listening to the book Can We Talk about Race?  I am participating in a book group through DESE with this book. 

Events this week:

Monday - Literacy Parade @ 2:00!

Tuesday - Virtual PD Day, No School for students

Wednesday - CST Meeting @ 8:00, CST Meeting @ 8:30, 2nd grade teachers hosting virtual parent conferences, Half day, dismissal at 12:30, K-2 parent conferences, 3-5 PD at Mayo, Liz at CPI training in the afternoon

Thursday - End of Q1 (report cards go live in PS Nov. 10), Liz in Admin Meeting from 8-10, Liz meeting with Amy Norton from 10:30-11:30, K teachers hosting virtual parent conferences

Friday - ELA Community of Practice application due

Great things I noticed last week:

• Check out Mrs. Olson's affirmation station, a place where kids can practice positive self talk in the mirror. 
  
  
  
• Love seeing 1st graders and 4th graders working together.  And how about the buddies that didn't realize they had dressed the same!

  

  

  
  
• I caught some 5th graders doing some hands on learning about circuits and chain reactions. 

  

  

  
  
• Spirit Week was so much fun!  Thank you for participating and helping to put smiles on kids' faces. 

   

  

Check it out:

In honor of our survivors, Shoshana and Laura, and all of the rest of us that are surviving this year...I thought this song was fitting.

And food for thought...

The Post I Didn't Write

 Principal ponderings...

I thought about writing a post this week and then I read Jennifer Gonzalez's latest post on her Cult of Pedagogy blog.  Instead of taking the time to read something I wrote, I hope you will take the time to read her post.  She also records her posts as podcasts so you can either read it or you can simply listen to it.

It is so true.  All.of.it.

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/barely-hanging-on/

Currently reading:

I can't put down Finding Junie Kim.  I love hearing the grandfather tell the stories of growing up during The Korean War.  

I am excited to finish the book above so I can start on one of the books I purchased at the book fair.  Looking forward to starting I Love You, Michael Collins, a story that takes place in 1969.

Events this week:

Monday - Crazy Sock Day!

Tuesday - Disney Day!

Wednesday - Wear Your Words Day! CST Meeting @ 8:00, SEPAC Meeting @ 6:30 at Davis Hill

Thursday - Mayo Spirit Day!

Friday - Literacy Parade @ 2:00!

Great things I noticed last week:

• Caught 2nd graders in Mrs. Tibbetts working on money and counting coins. 
  
  
  
• Our first Student Council meeting with 5th graders was a huge success.  Can't wait to see what this group does for the school this year! 

  

  
  
• Mrs. Kalinowski's 1st graders were writing their own sequels to the Elmer and the Dragon series. 

  

  
  
• Mrs. Baird's 5th graders found the perfect spot for their book club discussion.

  

Check it out:

Yes Day - The Education Version!

 Principal ponderings...

My daughter woke up Sunday morning and declared that it should be Yes Day!  I countered with...well why don't you write a list of what you would want to do on a Yes Day and then we could think about some of those choices.  She was very excited to crack open her new journal from the book fair...complete with a fur cover and totally unnecessary lock and key.  The picture above is her list.  I will decipher it for you:

Zoo

Playground

Ride bikes

Go swimming

Bake some food

Play games

Go to somewhere you never "goed" before

And apparently later in the day she added more!  So when she asked about a yes day, it got me thinking about what if we had a yes day in education.  What would it look like for students?  What would it look like for teachers?  What would it look like for parents?

Student yes day requests...

Can we have a full day of play day instead of a half day?  

Can we have a day where we don't use any worksheets or paper?

Can we have a day where we get to learn about whatever we want to learn about?

Can we have a day where we get to read all day?

Can we have a day where we do science experiments all day?

Can we trade classes or teachers for a day?

The list could go on and on, but imagine if we decided to say yes to all of those questions or even to at least one of those questions?  What would school look like and feel like for our students on a yes day with any of those above questions?  What are some other yes day questions that you think students would ask for?

Teacher yes day requests...

Can we have time everyday with our teams to plan?

Can we teach kids about a hobby or an activity that we are passionate about?

Can we go off script from our curriculum guides and do what we know our kids need?

Can we build a schedule that works for our students and not be forced to fit things in?

Can we have our own brain breaks and movement breaks?

Can we spend a day observing our peers and learning from each other?

Can we buy all of the materials that we want and that our kids need?

Again, the list could go on and on, but imagine if we could say yes to any of these questions?  What would your day look and feel like on a yes day with any of these questions?  What are some other yes day questions that you would put on the list?

Parent yes day requests...

Can I see what my kid looks like in class?

Can we have parent conferences throughout the year instead of just for 10 minutes maybe once a year?

Will you love and care for my kid like he or she is your own?

Will you make sure my child has friends at school?

Can you help me have conversations with my child about what they are learning and what they want to learn about?

Can you make sure my child is happy?

As a parent, there are lots of questions that I could add to this list, but imagine if we could guarantee a yes answer to any of these questions for all of our students and their parents?  What are some other yes day questions that you think our parents would add to the list?

I will let you know that while we didn't entirely agree to a full yes day, Emerson was able to check many things off her list yesterday.  While I was at the book fair, my husband took the kids on a bike ride to not one, but two different playgrounds.  And when they came home, they played wall ball.  Three things checked off her list.  Then we surprised the kids and picked up my niece who is a freshman at Providence College.  We went to a restaurant.  Another check off the list.  And we all went to the Roger Williams Zoo to see the Jack O'Lantern walk through event.  So we managed to check off zoo and "somewhere we never 'goed' before."  I guess we will save baking some food for another night this week.

Emerson was so excited to come up with her list and then be able to check things off.  And I know she is going to be writing about and talking about her "mostly yes day" in school today.  I think it's worth us thinking about how to create "yes days" in the education world.  We have had too many "no days", both during the pandemic and before the pandemic.

Time to make a new list.

What's going on your "yes day" list?

Currently reading:

I finished listening to The Midnight Library...so good!  I also finished reading Willowdeen, another great book by the author of The One and Only Ivan.  I saw several students purchase it at the book fair.  I started reading Finding Junie Kim.  This book starts right off with some difficult topics...a school starts their school year off dealing with racial slurs being spray painted on the walls of the school gym.  The book is told from the perspective of an Asian American student who is entering middle school; she learns of her grandfather's story and strength when he was experiencing the Korean War.  Can't wait to read more of this book!

I also read a new picture book called Maryam's Magic: The Story of Mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani. It's the true story of a girl who grew up in Iran and loved stories and art, and her love of creativity helped her see math in a whole new way. 

Events this week:

Monday -New building sub starting - Welcome Gabby Daniels!, Liz in MSAA Board Meeting (virtual) from 11:30-2:00

Tuesday - 5th Grade Student Council Meeting @ 8:00am in Mrs. Olson's classroom, Chess Club @ 3:30 in the library

Wednesday - Staff meeting @ 8:00 in the library

Thursday - Liz in virtual Curriculum Admin Meeting from 8:00-10:00, Rock Your School Day - Get Your Teach On Movement - how can we think outside of the box and engage our kids in different ways?

Don't forget ... Literacy Parade in one week, Friday, Oct. 29 at 2:00 and Spirit Week next week!

Great things I noticed last week:

• We had a surprise visitor at arrival...Trax from the Worcester Railers!  Saturday is opening night and Wachusett students get free tickets with adult ticket purchases. 
  
  
  
• Caught these two boys doing some great buddy reading in 3rd grade. 

  

  
  
• Thank you Andy, Jenna, Kate, Peg, Kristin B and many parents for coming Saturday morning and helping us clean up the garden area!  There might have been a principal on a tractor. :) 

  

Check it out:

I saw this great idea on Twitter.  A quick, easy check in to see what kids learned or understood from a lesson.  Each student puts a sticky note on their number.

Education Fantasy vs. Reality

 Principal ponderings...

Have you experienced the Facebook phenomenon?  Or Instagram envy?  You know when you are scrolling through your social media feeds and you see people posting these images that look like perfect worlds.  Perfect smiles in perfectly cropped images during a perfect moment in time.  Social media has certainly given us the chance to paint pictures that seem like everything is wonderful.  

As the chief storyteller of my school, I have spent years trying to share the story of the schools I am leading.  I feel like it's important for the outside world to see into our classrooms and our hallways.  I always want to share the positive things going on in our schools.  And there are a lot of positives that make it easy to share.  Lots of pictures of smiling kids, teachers working with students, students and staff doing amazing things every day.

But this year I worry that as I try to tell the story of our school, I am presenting more of a fantasy world than the reality that we are living each day.  The picture of the teacher working with the small group looks great, but it doesn't show the child having a breakdown 10 minutes before the picture was snapped.  The pictures of kids laughing on the playground doesn't show the lunch time behaviors that were happening before they ran outside to play.  The pictures of the teachers and staff welcoming students with a smile and a high five in the morning don't show the tears of exhaustion and stress that were wiped away quickly before the doors opened.

Educators and school leaders are putting on a brave face, but this year, the real picture of this year, is not a pretty one.  Social media is not showing the reality of what this year is like.  More than once, I have said to peers that I feel like this year is worse than last year.  How is that possible?!  We survived last year.  We crawled across the finish line last year.  It wasn't supposed to be like this this year.  I said to someone that Monday felt like a month.  The reality is that people wanted to believe the Facebook phenomenon; we all wanted to believe that being back in school, even with masks, would be better, would be almost back to normal.  We wanted the perfectly cropped pictures with the perfectly cropped moments in time.  But that's just not reality.  There are so many imperfect moments before and after those photoshopped moments.  

People who are not living in those in between imperfect moments with us, people who are not educators, do not understand what we are experiencing.  And while I am not going to start snapping pictures of teachers' exhausted faces or kids crying or students throwing food or kids falling asleep or adults and kids visiting the nurse because they are anxious and stressed, I am going to try to make sure I am painting those realistic pictures in other ways.  We need to share the real story with families and with people making decisions for our schools.

While I always love taking selfies with kids, I avoid taking selfies of myself feeling defeated or discouraged because my job as an educator seems impossible this year.  I don't need a selfie to show the bags under my eyes or the added worry lines on my forehead.  (Lucky for me, I have brutally honest children in my home who ask why my skin is saggy!) But I can write about the real struggles.  I can advocate for support for the real needs of our students and staff.  I can acknowledge that I see the real pictures that don't get posted to social media.  

This is not going to be an easy year.  Not that any year in education is ever easy.  But we have a Herculean task in front of us.  People expect us to pick up the pieces and recreate the images that were created before we experienced a pandemic.  The timelines that we followed before, the curriculum trajectories that we worked our way through, the business of doing school that teachers made look easy.  People think those are all able to just be done because we are "back in school."  And if we were living in the fantasy social media world of education, they would be doable.  But we are not living in that world.  We are living in the reality world of education.  The ugly picture/bad hair/weird face world.  The blurred image world.  The pictures that you delete and don't post world.  

Educators everywhere.  I see you.  The real, exhausted, stressed, anxious you.  The social media pictures don't tell the full story; they don't even tell a fraction of the story.  

Currently reading:

I am still enjoying reading Willodeen.  Hopefully I will be done with it by Tuesday so I can recommend it to some students at the book fair!  I am also diving into the book Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom.  Hoping to have some interesting information to share with K-2 from this book. 

I got this beautiful picture book in the mail recently.  Love how it tells the story of immigrants coming to America and the diverse garden that has been created as a resulted. 

I got a new biographical picture book called Jump At the Sun which is the story of Zora Neale Hurston.  She was an author I loved reading and studying in college. 

Events this week:

Monday - Indigenous People's Day, No School

Tuesday - Book Fair in the library all week

Wednesday - CST Meeting @ 8:15, Flu Shot Clinic at Mountview

Thursday - School Picture Day!

Saturday - PTA playground clean-up/weeding from 8-11, Book Fair open to families from 9-11

Sunday - Book Fair open to families from 2-4

Great things I noticed last week:

• I had fun playing Fishy Fishy Cross the Ocean with 2nd graders. 
  
  
  
• The Tuesday afternoon Chess Club is a big hit!  Hopefully we will be able to run more sessions during the winter. 

  

  
  
• Have you tried out our new outdoor seating options!?  Mrs. Bercume's class took advantage of the beautiful weather towards the end of the week and did some reading and discussion outside. 

  

  
  
• Thank you to the specialists, paras, and a few parents who helped us have a fun mini field day on Friday. It was a beautiful day and the kids seemed to have a great time playing outside. 

  

  
  
• Thank you Lindsay for adding the perfect saying in the middle of our wall of family photos. If you have not sent me a family photo yet, send one my way, still looking to add more! 

  

Check it out:

Check out this post about Play as Healing from Pandemic Trauma.

Our core value this month is kindness.  Check it out, you could publish a kindness book with your class for free!