So, this week, be on the look out for your something wonderful and if it was made possible by someone else, please be sure to let them know. Thank them three times. Make it weird, haha. Overdo it.
Overdo It
Good Gossip
As destructive as bad gossip can be, imagine how powerful good gossip can be. What would happen if kids caught us hyping them up to another adult. What would happen if teachers caught each other raving about their contributions at the lunch table just as they entered the room. What would happen if principals overheard district office administrators marveling at the way they facilitated their most recent staff meeting
Calm & Upstream
I’m simply asking us all to approach this week with an additional breath. Enough breath to create a little space between that triggering email or unfair something that has occurred and our reaction to it. Then, use the space you’ve now given yourself to look upstream a little bit to see a bigger picture, who is impacted, who may need to be involved in the conversation or next steps, why this may be occurring, and what may be causing to reoccur if that’s the case. It’s this type of thinking that leads to more strategic and thoughtful responses.
Celebration Tunnel
This is what having a legacy of learning is all about. One learner at a time. One conversation at a time. One room at a time.
Green Bean Moments
Our students don’t just notice how we treat them or how we treat other students. They learn from how we treat each other too. Whether we realize it or not, we are modeling what it means to be an adult.
An Inside Job
I’m writing this to share that maybe that thing we are afraid to do or think we can’t do or that thing that feels inconvenient might be exactly what we need. When we remove the friction points and stay the course on a commitment we made, especially one that is about our wellbeing, we remind ourselves that there is more to us and this life than our work. We remind ourselves are we are human beings not human doings.
School AS Community
It’s not a guide or a how-to. Our work as leaders is too complex and our communities too nuanced to be distilled down in that way. Instead, it’s rooted in principles and perspectives that illuminate possibilities in a heavy world.
Insecurities are Loud
But if we don’t start to figure out how to lead ourselves first from every seat in the organization, and if we don’t start to recognize the role we play in our own misery or the way we contribute to the very culture we hope to improve, we have little hope for the future in schools.
All We Have
Whatever each moment brings, let’s allow ourselves to live fully in it. It’s all we have in the end.
The Power of Noticing
So, I’m simply asking us to take the first brave step to simply notice. Allow ourselves to be curious not only about what people say but what they don’t say. Curious about specific words people use or body language and to make space to ask (when the time feels right) genuine questions that invite sharing and the possibility of some disagreement even.
MEGHAN LAWSON 