Entry # 3: A No-Good,
Horrible Very Bad Week
"Where never is heard, a discouraging word, and the skies are not cloudy
all day." I am not certain where in the world this place might be,
but it is not my middle school. How fragile is the balance between hope
and despair! How aware the principal must be of the shift in climate and
ever ready to counter with opposing weight when the shift occurs.
Friday, 6 PM (again), I am reviewing the team reports of the meetings for
the week. The meeting days are designated with a specific focus to keep
conversations on topics that address overall school goals.
Mondays are for working with their "content twin" in another team
-- mapping curriculum with others who have the same subject to teach. Tuesdays'
focus is a discussion of instructional content and scheduling within the
team. Wednesday, the talk centers on student concerns, and the assistant
principal and guidance counselors who work with the team join the group.
Thursday is parent conference day. Friday is "care for the caregivers"
day.
The final portion of the form is questions for administrators. This is always
the critical part of the report and the best reading. This week, every team
report ended with a litany of complaints. I knew we had hit a threshold
and the situation demanded attention because this week's comments were out
of the ordinary.
The "downers"
A summary of the downers follows: "Grades are due. Integrade (electronic
gradebook) is different. Curriculum maps are due. We had a general faculty
meeting with the superintendent - too many commitments. We hate to get burned
out here in September."
Four straight days of rain in this hurricane season might have been a factor.
Clearly, things had come to a crescendo of sorts. These complaints come
from teachers who are dedicated, highly professional, who hold the highest
standards for their own personal performance, and who reject any sort of
compromise of the goals they set for themselves. Combine the fluctuating
rhythms of the school year with an individual desire for a single note sustained
at the same high pitch, and disharmony is a sure thing.
I am a problem solver. That's what I do best. It is a central part of my
work. So, reading this list of gripes caused me to think all weekend about
what I needed to do to improve things. Then I realized I could not change
much of anything that teachers complained about. But I could listen. I could
sympathize. I could honor teachers for all they do. I could help them re-word
their songs with hopeful focus on the week to come.
My responses
These were my immediate responses: Administrative team members arrived at
the teachers' doors with room service: breakfast biscuits with choice of
breakfast drink. (Would you like sugar with that?) We celebrated at the
presentation of the curriculum maps session with the entire faculty newly
informed and appreciative of a big picture view of our instructional program.
We distributed "Tireless" staff awards with shameless play on
words displayed on tie pins, which everyone wore the next day. We made plans
for a teacher free time bonus with an assembly program for students which
teachers were not required to attend.
There were frequent and very public acknowledgements of our progress to
date on our school goals with a listing of specific accomplishments. We
remembered that there is no such thing as excessive when it comes to a focus
on giving credit for what has been successful as we face the challenges
of the future. Part of the continuous focus on school culture is the restating
of our mission and citing the connecting between our work and our achieving
the goals we stated therein.
I reflected upon the need to watch my language: the labels I use can make
all the difference in how a situation is perceived. I consciously select
language that carries the message of possibility. Rather than dwell on the
high level of restlessness we have seen this week in the students, I comment
on their unharnassed energy. Instead of noting that distractibility is a
constant drain on teachers efforts to focus students on content, I speak
to the specific engaging lessons I have seen going on in my pass through
classrooms this week: the cuneiform tablets being prepared in social studies,
the human models of atoms created in impromptu outdoor classrooms, the initial
lessons on internet searches going on in science classes, the original graphic
organizers being created in math classes.
I delivered the reminder that no one wanted to hear: "You are responsible
for your attitude about things that cannot be changed. Times are hard, but
times get better." I delivered my song of hope and encouragement at
our team leaders meeting and the response came on one of this Friday's team
reports:
"The team appreciated hearing that last week was stressful for everybody.
We were comforted about the message you gave of doing the best you can and
then move on. THANK YOU." Somehow, this time, I may have struck the
right chord.
"Choose to live in joy"
On my computer is a post-it note as a constant reminder, a quote from Joseph
Campbell, "We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to
live in joy." This high note is part of keeping the vision clear. The
principal is not only the instructional leader and all those other roles
with names: serving as the song leader who signals the pitch is essential.
Reminding everyone that conditions are temporary and that we have the ability
to change our songs and the means to do so is one way to make certain that
hope triumphs as the order of the day.
I avoid the risk of being discounted as some sort of out-of-touch Pollyanna
or Annie breaking into a chorus of "Tomorrow, tomorrow, there's always
tomorrow" by acknowledging the demands of our work. However, I consistently
draw attention to our successes, which did not come without great difficulty
along the way.
This Friday ended with the arrival of our PACT scores from last spring,
three weeks before they will be released to the public. The next three weeks
will be spent in preparation of those reports and our response to them.
I wrote in the "Friday Finale," the light-humored newsletter that
provides an end-of-the-week dose of hope and fun, that the test score news
was both good and bad.
So it's time to work on the song for next week. Discussions will begin which
center on what we are going to do as a result of these scores. We'll minimize
the hand-wringing and move on to solutions. That is the responsibility of
a leader: focus on the opportunities of a situation.
I make notes: "Remind staff of the strengths they bring to the facing
of an ordeal. Suggest ways to develop strategies. Remind them of the ways
they have created success in the past and convey with absolute assurance
that it will happen again. Refocus on encouragement and diminish discouragement."
Thus, another week begins.
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