Teachers | Blended Learning | Classrooms | Innovative Leadership
Right now teachers and leaders across the country are counting down the days until the end of the school year (some students are doing the math in hours). The weather is getting warmer, the sun is shining and people are singing “School’s Out For Summer” underneath their breath. Everyone is starting to think about what’s next, everyone is looking ahead.
Me? I am excited for summer too, but this time of year I am also looking back. This time of year has me remembering discussions I had with clients last summer. It has me thinking about what it was like this Fall, or even this Winter when schools and districts were getting started, when the hard work was underway, the trepidation was high and the optimism even higher. This time of year I am remembering all the Superintendents, leaders and teachers who last year, around this time, were saying “What If?” and who are now saying, “Why didn’t we do this sooner?” As the school year is winding down, I am getting all wound up just thinking about all the things that have happened!
Results are slowly starting to trickle in. Principals are calling to tell us about amazing increases in NWEA scores (don’t worry, we will share those results soon!), teachers are telling us that with blended learning their students were more engaged and that they, themselves, were more engaged and excited too (we have survey results to share soon too). We are hearing about how transforming teaching and learning also transformed the attitudes of teachers and students at the same time that it changed academic outcomes. The good news just keeps on coming.
So even as you are looking ahead to trading textbooks and e-books for beach books and beach games, I encourage you to pause from looking forward to summer and take time to look back at the journey you went through this year. I encourage you to celebrate the successes by sharing them. Yes, now is a time to reflect but also a time to brag. You earned it. In August everyone will ask how you spent your summer vacation and the words will tumble out as you try to relate every last fun detail - now is the time to tell everyone how you spent your year. How you spent it trying something new, how you spent it teaching in a new way or leading a different type of school or district. How you spent it learning differently; how you helped your students learn differently. Tell people how some of your students who struggled before are excelling now and that it is all because of you. You did this. You - the teachers, the leaders, the entrepreneurs - you made changes and those changes changed kids’ lives.
So just for a little bit, join me and think about where you are and how far you have come, and then think about where you are going after the last day of school bell rings.
*Copyright Credit for imageLabyrinthx
