Entry #5: "Just when you think you see
the light at the end of the tunnel..."
Like most Midwesterners, I keep hoping for just one more Indian summer week
or weekend as the weather keeps hitting the 30's every evening and has been
hovering in the 50's during the day. No, it's not because I'd love to break
out my golf clubs one more time or take a nice, long, autumn walk as the
leaves are turning and falling to the ground (although that in itself would
be wonderful!). Rather, we're having a new boiler installed in school that
isn't ready to be fired up, and Monday mornings are getting rather chilly
in the building.
Just when you think you see the light at the end of the tunnel with a busy
two months under your belt, a new challenge presents itself out of nowhere.
So, all the lights in the building are left on at night and over the weekend
in order to provide some type of heating affect for the next morning. Is
this what the new millennium holds for us, or is it simply our version of
what Abe Lincoln endured by candlelight?!
In the meantime, teachers are concerned about kids wearing their bulky coats
to class, and it's getting tight in the hallways as kids are passing to
class since we're overcrowded anyway. I don't remember this kind of administrative
training in my college courses. Yet, there are days when it seems like this
type of a concern seems to dominate my Daytimer "to do" list.
Maybe we needed to have a course called: "The Natives are Restless
101" somewhere along the line in preparation for a career in school
administration.
But then again it just serves to remind me that these issues, which can
seem trivial at times, are just as important to be responsive to as any
type of school improvement activity. Motivated and contented staff members
need to know that they can come to the school administration with any type
of concern and that it will be sincerely heard. I typically validate the
concern with a response such as "I understand your concern and will
do my best to see what I can do. I know you do the same when kids come to
you in a similar situation with something that is important to them."
After all, every moment is a teachable moment, right?!
We always hear about the need for people to keep a proper balance in their
lives, usually meaning the personal versus the job relationship. This past
week,however, brought a different type of imbalance to my attention.
I've always been very involved professionally in local, state, and national
associations no matter what position I have held at a given time (e.g.,
teacher, athletic director, assistant principal, principal). I believe that
good leadership takes on many forms both within and outside of one's daily
job responsibilities. This year I'm serving on the Executive Board for the
Illinois State Principals Association. It means three Executive Board meetings
during the school year as well as three additional meetings to chair a state
committee I oversee.
In the past, these meetings have not seemed to present a conflict with my
feeling that I can be "Superwoman" and manage all of my responsibilities
effectively and sensitively. As I've mentioned before, though, this school
year has brought on additional responsibilities including external site
visits, the preparation of a Blue Ribbon application due at the end of this
week, as well as preparing a school team of teachers for a presentation
at NMSA. Of course, somewhere in the midst of all of this are the daily
meetings, reports, and other principal responsibilities that come with the
territory.
I had just returned from the State Principals Conference after having been
gone two days and was standing at the Xerox machine. One of my dynamic,
sixth-grade teachers saw me, and it must have been mental telepathy that
we both said simultaneously "long time, no see!" It was her second
comment, however, that stayed with me as I finished what I was copying:
"Do we get you back soon?" Now, that's a heavy!
It was only reinforced later in the week when I failed to catch that a new
teacher observation had been scheduled on Friday afternoon, and, somehow,
it hadn't been jotted down on my Friday afternoon schedule. I should have
caught it, since earlier in the week the teacher had submitted some tentative
lesson plans to me with the date/time clearly written on top. I've had an
empty feeling the pit of my stomach ever since. It's very difficult for
people who always want to feel that they're "on top of their game"
to remember that they're human as well. I'm promising myself to be more
diligent to my schedule and how much I try to take on day in and day out.
On the "up" side, we're moving along with the identification of
a School of Choice theme for Jefferson as the district's three middle schools
move to Choice in a year or so. I met with a parent advisory committee that
we assembled to begin the process of obtaining parental input. I'm being
very careful to not influence their thinking as they review survey data
that was assimilated about a year ago. The plan is to bring together parent
and staff representatives before the winter break to reach a consensus on
a theme. As always, we continue to be diligent to have a diverse representation
of parents for this process so that all voices can be heard.
I'll be driving our Blue Ribbon application over to the State Board of Education
office (about 90 miles from Champaign) before I leave for Orlando to make
sure it doesn't get lost in the mail. It's a tremendous amount of work to
compile, write, and edit before submission, but I have to admit that it
is a great means by which to analyze and reflect as a staff on what, how,
and why you do the things you do in your school. I feel very good about
the quality of what we are submitting, but you can never really know the
schools you're competing against and what they've put together. Regardless,
it's our second application in four years, and that's a tremendous compliment
to our staff to be focused and persistent in their belief that we do a quality
job with our kids here at Jefferson!
Oh, yes, one more thing -- our school received the Award of Merit last weekend
from the Illinois State Board of Education at a statewide awards banquet
as "an outstanding learning organization." We were one of eight
schools (and only one of two middle schools) in the State so honored. We
brought 51 strong to Springfield, including administrators, teachers, secretaries,
cafeteria workers, and custodial staff to celebrate together as a staff!
As I went up to receive our award from the State Superintendent of Schools,
the entire Champaign contingent went wild at their tables in applause (probably
a few whistles, bells, table-thumps as well). We clearly caught the attention
of the State Superintendent as he whispered to me "My gosh, did you
bring the entire city of Champaign with you? How wonderful?!" We love
making positive impacts on people and programs wherever we go.or, another
way of putting it -- we work hard and we play hard!
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