Darkness, Sunlight, and In It

Darkness, Sunlight, and In It

Darkness.

There are those of us who are continually in darkness, either by our own choices or the choices of those around us. It could also be a combination of our genes, our chemical make-up, our environment or a combination of lots of those things, both listed and unlisted.

I am not an expert as to the cause of this darkness but know that it exists and its a constant battle for many of our students, staff and the people that they love. As mentioned in a previous post, schools are small communities within themselves, very similar to a family. Dysfunction and all.

Different grades and departments are doing their own thing. At times, parts of the community aren’t getting along, or one part of the “neighboorhood” is upset with the other part because of a scheduling conflict or some other arbitrary reason. That reason seems so crucial at the moment, but after a few days, it doesn’t matter at all.

Then there are those magical times when the school/family comes together to rally around a person, or event, or cause. Unfortunately, darkness usually brings us together. A death, a loss, a divorce, cancer, and a variety of other life events.

I can’t predict what type of darkness we will see this school year. But know that this year will be similar to the past couple of years, and we will have our fair share.

Sunlight.

We let the kids go outside for lunch today. It’s not a recess, but an opportunity for the kids to get out of the building and enjoy being outside. I need it as much as they do. The 7th graders were so excited to go outside.

We have a specific spot for the kids to play football, soccer, or hang out. Typically, I spend the first month outside with them, because as a whole, the student population is well behaved and we don’t have a lot of situations to work with.

When playing football, we divide into two teams. We usually switch up combinations of elementary feeders so that the same kids aren’t always on the same side. I explain the boundaries, and then we start.

It’s exactly how you imagine it would be. Thirty kids on each side all running go routes to catch a touchdown pass. The magical part is how the game hasn’t changed a bit in the 27 years since I was in 7th grade. We still play five-alli or five-alligator, two hand touch, and no huddles.
When the ball is thrown up, there is a cluster of kids all going for it, and even if the tallest student doesn’t catch it, somehow the ball gets tipped around a few times until someone does find it.

When I play quarterback, as an adult, I try and pass the ball to as many different kids as possible. I know the athletic kids will have plenty of chances to catch passes over the next nine months. I try and find the ones who need a little confidence. It’s amazing what a short completion does for a teenage kid playing football in front of 60+ of his peers will do.

In it.

We are in it.
As a school, we are in it. We are buried in the process of getting better. Not bad buried, but good buried. We are in the hard work stage of the PLC process. It’s the part where significant decisions need are made. The school is at the part where personal accountability is most visible. Uncomfortable as it may be we are at the part that takes time, tweaking, changing, and self-evaluation. We are in it.

We are asking hard questions of our teachers…
Are your students engaged? How do you know? Can you prove it? If not, why not? Is your classroom a safe place? Not just for the students who follow the rules, but for the kids who struggle with reading or writing? Or behavior? Can your students show what they know? How?

Our coaches are helping teachers through coaching cycles; these can be uncomfortable and very humbling. But, we are at a point where forward progress has to happen. We can only talk about it for so long. We are indeed in the middle of it.

I can’t adequately describe what it is but will let you know when we have moved on from this it, to the next it. As public educators, our job is to get better, not just try to get better. Our students need us, the future us needs us. For the most part, we are educating the generation of kids that will take care of “it” for us, when we need it the most.