Add 1 Tablespoon Leadership and 1 Teaspoon Friendship

This is my 4Th attempt at writing this blog. I have erased all previous attempts due to privacy issues. This is one of those stories that when told, would be easy to figure out who I am talking about. Sometimes Google isn't a good thing.

So, I won't bore you with the story, but I will bore you with my dilemma...........I have to make a decision that will directly hurt a colleague of mine. I have to make this decision because it is what is best for the students in my school. I have to do this, but it is breaking my heart.

Leadership is lonely. Leadership is hard. I will do what is right by my students - that I have no doubt, but to do that I have to have the co hones to hurt someone in the process. There is no getting around it. It must be done.

I will do so in the most professional way that I can. I will do so with great respect. I will hurt someone I respect and admire because I know that it must be done to ensure that my students get the best experience they can get................

Do you think those that we hurt know how much we hurt too? Do you think they know it isn't easy to do what is right? Do you think they know how stressed I am to think I have to do it?

My only other question is: how long can I do this job?

Help! I've Turned Into Dr. Fieldsman!

In college I had a professor that was big into theory. What was the origin of.....? What were the implications of.......? I hated that class. I wanted practical strategies that would make me a better teacher. I vowed that I would always remember his class and always deal with the practical issues. That is what would make me the best teacher I could be.

Today I had my reality check. I have been doing so much research and learning. I have been inspired by finding out the qualities of the 90/90/90 schools. I want to learn the best way to teach reading. I want to learn about RTI. I could go on and on.

The two Instructional Coaches (thanks to Luby and Laiben - the 2 best IC's around) for the district came in today to do a workshop on implementing small groups with a 90-minute reading block. They came prepared with so many strategies. The staff heard about cooperative group strategies, they learned how to implement center activities that deal with the 5 components of reading. The staff even learned more about implementing lessons for the gifted/advanced student.

Here is what I saw: most of them were eating it up.

I saw note taking. I saw hands in the air. I heard conversations about practical strategies that can be implemented in the classroom.

It wasn't rocket science. It wasn't really anything else that they didn't know.

I haven't seen this reaction from them in a long time..............and, then I realized..............

it's because I turned into Dr Fieldsman! I had been giving them research and theory. I had been helping their budgets because they were able to cancel their sleeping prescriptions. I was putting them asleep.

I had lost my mojo............I must get it back.

This weekend: Austin Powers, here I come.

Principals: even when we think we haven't forgotten what it was like in the classroom, maybe we have...............