School opens in exactly 33 days and yes, I eagerly await its return. Unfortunately, the reality of only 33 days left also has me biting my nails. There's so much to do and so little time to do it; and every attempt at putting first things first has failed. In fact, from where I stand, no one thing is greater than the next.
When I closed school out this year, I made a to do list. This list consisted of those things I wanted to have done or set in place prior to my leaving in July. I am proud to say a majority of the things on the list got done: End of Year Report, School Report Card, Building Schedule, Class list, etc. However, it's still not enough. In fact, I haven't even begun to tackle the real issues that exist in my building like: how to rally the staff around a common vision and mission, how to not be a leader in name only, and how to improve student achievement, staff morale, and parent involvment.
Since I knew the work completed in June would only stratch the surface of these more complex issues, I decided to use the month of July to:
1. Build my professional learning network
2. Read, read and read some more
3. Invite my staff to participate
4. Reflect
So far so good, in the midst of family time, I have read two really great books: The Drive by Daniel Pink and The EdCamp Model, scheduled one staff meeting prior to the beginning of the school year, and confirmed four staff led presentations for our opening institute!
Today, I celebrate all that has been accomplished. I celebrate not becuase we are where I see we can be, but because we are moving in the right direction. I celebrate because in the midst of making my lists, planning for the opening of another school year, collaborating with staff and writing this blog; I rediscovered my number one priority: my students. They are the reason we do what we do and they should always be our number one priority.
