Amy’s Reflections

 In no other field are people fortunate enough to have two New Years as we are in education. In no other field do you get a fresh start every year. We launched the 2022-23 school year with a new found hope to move forward, support staff and students alike and find the joy in education again. It’s an exciting time and one that I look forward to every year because it provides the chance for a fresh start for everyone, particularly those who have had a hard time in the past.  I have made a lot of commitments to myself both professionally and personally this school year, especially after the challenges of last school year. I no longer dread walking in to the building every day, and recognize that no one will ever tell me that they recognize they made a mistake. What I’ve realized is that it is up to me to take the small victories and kudos as people saying they value my work. I’ve done a lot of internal work to get myself to recognize this. Currently, a few things I will share her...

So it’s winter break and although I am working a few days, this is probably the one break I always stay home and love my staycation with Moe. I have a lot of items on the to do list....some will get done, others we will see. Next year, is the start of a new decade in more than one way and for once I actually feel that I am in a good space mentally and physically thanks to a lot of wonderful people reminding me of how hard I have worked to get where I am because believe me none of this has come easily. It seems nothing much comes easy in my life yet I know I am beyond blessed. As I think back and reflect forward, here are a few things I hope to accomplish in the comings months before the big 4-0 (or within this upcoming year) and they are all things within my own control (so none of them involve Prince Charming’s arrival, which would be a welcome bonus). 1. Travel to a beach I have never been to before (April break) 2. Travel to a baseball park I have never been to before 3. Trave...

 Notes and other things that resonated with me:  Start the school year with a Fireside chat with superintendent/principal with students for convocation. Invite graduates back that are 5+ years out (should have large diversity in types of kids we bring back for this and only 3-5) respond to:   Biggest take away's from our district/school?  What they want us to know.  What we can do better to prepare future students for their future?  Based on this, have teachers commit to making one change this year based on what they heard and POG. Have teachers document and share their process to reflect on at various points throughout the year, we would also build PD model, teacher evaluations, goal setting, etc. based on this.  This models design thinking, empathy interviews, meeting students changing needs, supporting staff and giving staff voice and choice in what they are going to do District has a mini ISTE with workshops before school year starts with food...

 This school year has by far been the most challenging of my career. After the past two school years, I thought we might begin to move forward in education. We have not, we have fallen back to old structures and patterns as the chicken soup we have craved during times of uncertainty.  Teachers have shown up everyday relentlessly trying to close learning gaps and help to support students understand again what being a good student looks like and perhaps more importantly prepare them to be good people and citizens of the world. Teachers are tired and deserve the summer break more this year than ever. The work has been hard and yet we have had some huge successes. Watching the Class of 2022 walk across the stage yesterday into their future reminded me once again why being in education is the right work, right now.  While the discipline matters with students this year have been seemingly never ending and complex with multiple perspectives that are not right or wrong, just diff...

  As the end of March nears and testing season is upon us, I thought I would take advantage of the opportunity to talk about ways to demonstrate student learning beyond tests. Little (if any) research shows that the only way to prepare students for tests is by giving tests, yet this is a default many educators use. I find myself frequently engaged in discussions about this with our teachers.  The questions, I ponder with them: what are we trying to measure? What are the different ways we can measure this? What are the advantages and disadvantages to each approach?  Using this graphic as a guide may be helpful in the future. George Couros recently shared it in his weekly e-mail and it provides options that should be considered for all students.  Some of you know, I’m a firm believer in providing students options to best demonstrate their learning but I also believe it’s part of every teachers job to guide students to selecting how they can best demonstrate their learn...

 So it’s the end of another month and I had vowed to write monthly posts again this year about important topics in education to continue to support educators during this challenging year in education. I am in awe every time I set foot in a classroom in my school this year at what I see.  I see teachers that love their craft and love their students. Most especially the challenging kiddos and when they have to figure out how to teach content in new ways because of learning gaps that occurred over the last two years. I see teachers that are committed to the work and highly reflective of their practice. Between January and February, I was fortunate to get in classrooms a lot as I did 6 units of study and several other teacher observations. This is by far the part of my job that I LOVE the most, being in classrooms where the true magic happens everyday in our schools.  Across these units of study and other observations I have done, I have watched teachers push their practice a...

 One of the most important things we do as leaders is provide feedback to help people grow. We have to consider our audience and build relationships with those that we are providing feedback to in order to know how to best motivate them and ensure continuous growth in our organizations. We have a responsibility to consider both the individuals goals and the organizations goals.   If you have read any of my prior blog posts, you likely know that during the pandemic I have doubled down on reading and joined the Pop Sugar reading challenge last year. One of the reasons that I love to read is so that I can learn more about different perspectives and how to best support these perspectives that differ from my own. As a leader in education right now, I am faced daily with people, both staff and students that have widely different views on the same topic. Masks versus unmasking kids, distancing in classrooms versus the concerns that we have significantly emotionally damaged our c...