Leveraging Learning

I cannot concentrate today. I have a list in front of me of things I need to do. They are important - pressing even. And yet, I cannot concentrate. My problem is twofold. Tonight is Opening Night for my son's first high school drama performance. He's a good actor and this is a student directed play - so I am interested as a mom AND as an educator. What will it be like? Will everything go as planned? Or well, even? The other issue is my niece. She is currently driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike to from Pittsburgh to my house outside of Philadelphia. I wonder about weather and road conditions. How soon will she be here? Did I buy enough food? I can't help but laugh at myself. How many times have I said to a student "Pay attention, will ya"? I've said it to myself at least 50 times in the last hour. Finally, I gave up to blog. One of two things could happen next. I could immediately become productive OR I could go home and try again tomorrow. I am...

One of my heroes, Maya Angelou, wrote, "It is time for parents to teach young children early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength." I'm willing to bet that most people would agree with this sentiment, at least on the surface. Where things get complex is in the implementation of this. Sure, we can accept that diversity is beautiful. Even mainstream advertising makes sure that we see images of same-sex couples, persons with physical disabilities, racial differences and interracial families. The new "us" as a nation. When we think about "US" as a school, community or organization, it can be somewhat more difficult to see the diversity which is so positively embodied in advertising campaigns - even, sometimes, our own. Biases and stereotypes creep their way into the ways we talk about others and the expectations we have for them. I think of phrases I have overheard within the last year which illustrate these prejudices. To be cl...

I've had a bad week. I will not lie. Things were not going well from the outset. Generally, I am a fairly positive person, but I struggled this week with negative thoughts. Without going into the painful details of what exactly went wrong, I can tell you that the underlying problems were, well, problems. Things not running smoothly, disruptions to the schedule, set backs in "the plan." In my more frustrated moments, I did a lot of complaining. My message was clear: "This will never work." This is not a sentence I utter often. For most of life, I believe in possibilities and work hard to make them realities. This historically has been easier for me, but maintaining this mindset this week has been a challenge. I was fortunate to be exposed to some forward thinkers this week, who helped me to focus on what could be and what was working. I've taken their thoughts and put them into a handy list to help myself when I have another bout of negative thinkin...

My 9th grader called me yesterday after school. "Can you pick me up?," he asked. I had not planned to, but my mommy sense told me I should say yes. When I arrived at school he was sitting by the tennis courts doing some homework. He looked a little sad. As parents, we want to make sure our kids our ok. As the parents of teenagers, we know better than to ask, so I waited to be told. The conversation started with the usual topics. How was your day? What should we have for dinner? Eventually, he opted to drive with me to pick up his brother from cross country. And that is when I got the goods. No, he was not bullied in school. No one stole his lunch money, he wasn't sick and he didn't lose his Chromebook. What happened was something that has happened to all of us - he wasn't able to explain his thinking. It was the end of the last class of the day. Many of the kids had left early for a soccer game, so the teacher asked the students a series of questions. Fo...

What guides your institution? I've given this a great deal of thought lately. Leaving one institution for another provides a special lens through which to compare and analyze. I've found myself thinking about why - Why is policy in place? Why do we value that thing? Why do we show up every day? To be clear, I am not saying "we did it better at my old school" or "my new institution is an improvement over my old one." Rather, having been part of a school culture and being faced with the task of navigating a new one has given me the opportunity to evaluate both. This month I've been reading Building School 2.0: How to Create the Schools We Need by Chris Lehman and Zac Chase.   I haven't made a great deal of progress with the reading, but the book has enabled me to do a great deal of thinking. One of the chapters is about vision. I read it last week, but have thought about the idea of vision on a fairly consistent basis in the days since. Lehman an...

My sister died this summer. It was unexpected and awful. She was funny, generous, thoughtful and warm. It was impossible to be around her and not laugh. Amy was older than me by five years and so, naturally, I worshiped her. Years ago, she had a pair of purple shoes (it was the 80s!) that I coveted. My feet were smaller than hers at the time because I was only 10. She said that she'd give them to me when my feet were big enough. Besides the shoes, Amy had many gifts that I admired - as a 10 year old, throughout my teens and later as an adult. She knew how to mark an occasion. She threw great parties - paying careful attention to every detail. She remembered milestones. But it wasn't just the celebratory moments that Amy acknowledged. She knew the importance of marking the more difficult moments in life as well. When my oldest son was diagnosed with autism at the age of two, Amy sent him balloons. His delight was infectious and he played with them for days until they fe...

Yesterday, I went to not one but two school sporting events. The first was a soccer game at my son's small independent school. The Hill Top Hawks were playing the Stratford Friends Phoenix. The Phoenix were victorious, but it was a beautiful day for a game. From there, we drove to the STHS Stadium where the Spartans played the Trojans in an epic (and very long) football game. Again, a beautiful evening to be outside and the band sounded great. If you know me at all, you know that I am not sporty. Sure, I attempt to play tennis and street hockey with my kids, but I really don't have the patience to watch others play. While I have dutifully sat through many sporting events out of love, I have rarely paid much attention to the game. In fact, the only reason I knew the Spartans were winning last night was because the pep band played On Wisconsin each time they scored - and I heard that song many times last night. Not paying attention to the game has enabled me to appreciate ...