Skip to main content

Some Exciting News

On Wednesday of this past week, the new Principal's Shortlist was approved by the Board of Trustees and released to the system, and I was on it. While I am very much excited and honoured to be considered worthy of such a position, I can't deny that the thought of taking this role on makes me a bit nauseous. I suppose I will forever be the reluctant administrator who continues to miss teaching and magic we can make happen in a classroom. Part of the uneasiness is attributed to a new-found appreciation of the degree of scrutiny under which principals are viewed. I have always appreciated that there really is no separation of the private and public persona. I can claim that "my views are my own" but I have also come to really understand how being part of an organization such as a school board simply does not allow for that and rightly so. I have to be even more guarded and careful about what I publish to avoid misunderstanding and misrepresentation of myself and potentially others. I have been known be something of a "straight shooter". There's not a whole lot of guess work required to figure out what I think on a matter because most of the time, I'll say what I'm thinking. It goes a long way with kids and most of the time, with teachers too. I realize I'm entering a very different arena that my experience as a Vice Principal has not really allowed me to understand fully. How I present myself in the way I speak and even dress will be even more so under the proverbial microscope. I get it, I do.

As I ready for the news of my placement for the upcoming school year, I have A LOT of thinking to do and was recently given some really good advice about survival in Year One:

  1. Be quiet. Observe. Listen.
  2. Reinvent my approach on social media.
  3. Invest time to develop a positive working relationship with my superintendent. 
  4. Seek out mentorship from seasoned principals who "get it".
Interestingly, none of these points pertains to running a school specifically. I have come to appreciate that much about being an effective principal stems from having a kind of "presence". I have been told that my personality lends itself to this sort of presence but I'm realizing that being the face of the school requires someone who can still remain true to themselves while presenting as someone who truly understands that they represent an entire system of beliefs, practices and ways of doing and being. Much of the upcoming months will require me to dig REEEEEALLY deep and look at ways of reinventing myself a bit while still being authentically me. I am the age that I am, looking forward to such an amazing opportunity and a lot of it has to do with me and who I am. While I have many reasons to be proud, I know that I am about to take on a role that has absolutely nothing to do with me or my wants or goals. It's about kids and what's best for them. THAT is really what I'm all about.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Catholic Education Week 2020

Tomorrow marks the beginning of Catholic Education Week. It is truly a gift to be able to work in a publicly-funded Catholic school, where we can be free to express our faith so freely and unapologetically. It's a bit sad that we are presently in quarantine and cannot gather in community to celebrate this wonderful gift but my staff and I decided to capitalize on the marvel that is social media to stay connected to our students. We wanted to inspire hope and encourage them from our homes, to theirs. I challenged my staff to select a favourite Scripture passage that they felt evokes a great sense of hope and each day on our school's Twitter feed, I feature a staff member with their quote. I also posted these photos into all of the Google Classrooms that the staff were running for  distance learning. In our special community, where relationships are so key to student success, we thought it was important for the kids to see our faces. We called our little project #motivatedbyfaith...
4 comments
Read more

The Need to Be Liked

My grade 8 teacher was the late (and truly great) Classford Johnson. I remember his class like it was yesterday, including something he used to say on a daily basis: "I don't want to be loved, I want to be understood." As a kid, I knew what he was getting at. He wanted us to respect him, his rules and expectations. If we got along, great. If we didn't, it didn't matter to him as long as we respected him, his rules and his expectations. Most of us loved him. He was tough but fair. He appreciated a good joke and laughed with the rest of us when we something was funny. My memory of Mr. Johnson and his infamous phrase came into my head quite a lot in the days after I had bid farewell to the staff and students of the school I have just left. Admittedly, I was confused. As a kid and as a classroom teacher, I never really paid much mind to what people thought of me. I have always abided by the Golden Rule when it came to my relationships at school and hoped for the best....
3 comments
Read more

Leading During a Pandemic

 Never thought I'd EVER type a title like that.  Pandemics were only events I had taught about during my History classes. The experience thus far can only be described as surreal. It's been a part of our reality for nearly 10 months now and the fear and uncertainty is still not lost on me with the reporting of daily infection and death rates. It has been my single greatest challenge as a leader to date to show up to work everyday imbuing optimism that we're going to be ok, that school is a safe place to be. I have to say that on 98% of those days, I have believed just that. We have be so very fortunate not to have experienced any positive diagnoses of COVID-19 so far. Implementing the new health and safety protocols, while tedious and laborious, has not been all that  difficult. Sure, the work up front was a lot - signage, taping arrows and cues on the walls and floors, rearranging classroom furniture to establish social distancing in the classrooms ... as the Principal, ...
2 comments
Read more