Monday Morning Musings: Lessons From LEGO

Principal pondering...

I needed to step away from my blog for a little bit and regroup. My leadership courage and strength was definitely tested, and I learned that I can get knocked down and need time and space to get myself back up. I also know that writing is my outlet, and I can't not write. It's like this gravitational force that pulled me back. I was trying to organize one of our rooms this weekend and kept finding LEGO pieces, partially built LEGO constructions, and LEGO instruction manuals. And those LEGO items got me thinking... there's a lot to be learned from LEGOs.

Lesson #1 - You can always rebuild.

My kids like to build a LEGO set and then be done with it. But I know my nephew loves to build his LEGO sets, then break them apart and rebuild something completely different. Sometimes the basic structure is the same from the original design, but he has added his own twist to it. Last week, we were FaceTimeing and he showed me his LEGO Hulk character where he had added a completely different arm with a sword and then had placed Hulk in a boat he had made. Meanwhile, my daughter had discovered a set that she had built but between cats and her foster brother, the set had fallen apart. She was upset but I said...so rebuild it, start over. She proceeded to do that, rebuilding it to be exactly how she did it before. When we are thinking about building school culture, just like LEGOs, it is something that can always be rebuilt. Sometimes it will end up exactly as it was before or sometimes it will be a little different. The important lesson is once it's built, you can always rebuild or make adjustments at anytime.

Lesson #2 - Create a system where positives outweigh the negatives.

The LEGO molds are some of the most accurate molds around. Did you know that there are only about 18 bricks out of a million that don't fit the company standard? That means that it doesn't happen very often where a brick is produced that doesn't have the right measurements. That's a whole lot of bricks produced that do fit the mold. Instead of focusing on the negative, LEGO works extremely hard to focus on the positive...the 999,982 bricks that did make the cut. It's impossible to achieve perfection, only positive experiences, but you will be better off if you recognize the amount of positives, that typically clearly outweigh the negatives.

Lesson #3 - When you are lost, remember to find the joy and play.

The man who created the LEGO was named Ole Kirk Christiansen. He was a carpenter who lost his business and decided to start making toys out of leftover wood. He came up with the name LEGO from the first two letters of the Danish words "leg godt" which translates to "play well." Thank goodness that carpenter didn't give up. He found joy and decided that creating something amazing to play with was the most important thing. I got knocked down, but seeing the kids in action, talking with them, observing them, watching them play and learn, they helped me back up. Don't ever lose sight of the joy that surrounds us everyday.

Lesson #4 - We are in the business of dealing with humans.

This is not a new lesson for me, but it's one that I clearly needed to remind myself. Did you know that LEGO minfigures make up the largest population in the world? If LEGO was a nation, watch out...there are over 4 billion LEGO minifigures! Each of them so different with their facial features, clothing, coloring, etc. While we don't have that many people in our school, the people are the most important part of what we do, our interactions, our connections with each other. And we are all human. We have feelings. We make mistakes. We have opinions. We are fragile. We are strong. We are human and we have to remember the human side of education, with each other and with our little humans.

Another interesting fact about LEGO pieces...

LEGO Duplo bricks can connect with regular LEGO bricks. Duplo means double, so those bricks are exactly double the size of the regular bricks. But the cool thing is...they are still compatible with each other. You can connect them and build with them both! The reasoning for this design was of course to make sure little kids could safely play with pieces and not put them in their mouths. Something else that is cool is that a LEGO brick from 1958 can connect with a LEGO brick that was just created yesterday. The bricks were designed to be universal. No matter when they were made, they all fit well together. I just thought these facts are symbolic of the work we do here at school. When you drill down to our main purpose, we have kids and we have adults and we are able to and need to connect and work together to build something amazing...much like what you can do with all those great LEGO bricks.

Currently reading:

I am enjoying reading a book that arrived on my doorstep Friday night. It's called The 6 Literacy Levers: Creating a Community of Readers. It's written by a good friend of mine Brad Gustafson, another principal who loves literacy just as much as I do. The cool thing about this book is Mayo School is in the book...on page 160! He loved the story of when Patty Hurley and I climbed into the lobby display case to announce the March Madness Book Bracket winner, Wonder. Brad is a master at writing a professional development book that reads like a story and is full of great strategies and ideas.

I am a glutton for punishment but I started listening to the book Death in Slow Motion, a memoir about a mother who was a writer and had Alzheimer's written by a daughter who is a writer. It's tough to listen to, but I need the brutal honesty in it.

I attended an event where local authors were selling and signing their books. And I picked up a great writing craft book called Bad Choices Make Good Stories: Conversations About Writing. It's written by Erin Dionne, a local middle grade author. I am enjoying her writing advice.

Events this week:

Monday - Laura has to quarantine this week, but will be working from home

Tuesday - Liz G will be presenting at Dawson's staff meeting from 8-9:00

Wednesday - Picture Retake Day, Student Council Meeting @ 8:00am, Liz G in late after doctor's appt

Thursday - Liz G in DEI Leadership Training with Teachers 21 from 8-10:00

Great things I noticed last week:

Mrs. Petersen is growing readers in her classroom!
Mrs. Hilton's 3rd graders have been working hard on their opinion writing and they invited me in to hear them read what they had to say. They all had some compelling arguments for changes to made at the school.
Love seeing all the new Choose To Be Nice gear that more and more students and staff are wearing!
When teachers get creative about solving problems, amazing things can happen. Watching this 5th grader work with this kindergartener to do some math work made my year. It's moments like this that remind me of why I do what I do.