Amy’s Reflections

        As I finish, Personal and Authentic by Thomas C. Murray, I always begin to reflect on how this will enhance my own philosophy of teaching, learning, and educational leadership. I want to share two stories of feedback I have received that have stuck with me, both stories are deeply personal. The first occurred during my first few months as an assistant principal at my school. To provide some context for those of you reading this that don't know me, I taught in my school for eleven years and was an instructional leader prior to going over to the dark side of administration. I started as a brand new teacher, fresh out of graduate school, which was pretty unheard of when I was hired in my school with a few rare exceptions and my move to administration was not one that I can say I particularly knew I would be making from the start of my career. I am both the youngest and sole female administrator in our high school. A few things to know about me is that I love to ...

      This first chapter blew me away! It was so powerful and held so true to my own beliefs, especially now more than ever during this pandemic and emergency eLearning as Tom started by talking about the importance of relationships and of shifting practices from "what I taught to who I taught" as bringing "the real work into focus" as we are more and more disconnected than ever whether it be from our colleagues or students. As I wrote in my last few entries about my word for the year, "balance" and how I had hoped that we would move towards finding some new approaches to education because I believe that our system is dated not knowing that COVID would change our lives so much, so soon, I am hopeful that we will take some time to rethink what it is we go back to in the future that we call the foundations of our school systems. Many have recently pointed out to me in their studies of past pandemics about the major changes that have taken place afterward, wh...

The overarching question to reflect on: Does my assistant principalship benefit my school academically?  Week 1 reflection question: what is my value to my school as an assistant principal? How is your school valuable as a result of you being there? Better? Greater?  How to be an AP in a Pandemic 1. Call your principal and ask what you can do to help or jump in and do it 2. SEL for staff, especially those you directly supervise. Just call them to check-in, they often trust you to have these hard conversations because they want to teach at high levels. They need you, they have a lot of heavy stuff right now and need to talk through it. You don’t know how they are perceiving you right now. Have compassion.  3. Talk to your staff every single day. You must have empathy for your staff and what they are going through.  Week 2 Topic: if you were the principal of your school how would it be different?  10 self-reflective questions:  1. Who would you be instruction...