Continuous Growth
How are you growing?
In PLC Thursday I discussed with you how I had been reflecting upon my leadership and as part of this reflection I thought about how I have been helping you grow as leaders and learners. As you all know I have a 35 minute drive each day to school and I normally spend this time listening to either podcasts or books. I say normally because my drives home are usually spent jamming one of my Spotify daily mixes, but I digress. The book I listened to most recently was Kids Deserve It by Todd Nesloney and Adam Welcome. This book came to me at the perfect time because it relit a fire in me for kids and for helping teachers reach their greatest potential! One chapter of the book talked about educators being life long learners and continuing to grow. One of the authors told a story about a practice he put into place in his school to help his teachers continue to grow and to begin a conversation about reading not only between teacher and student, but between teacher and teacher as well. We constantly talk with our students about how important it is to be a reader and to create a love for reading, but are we just talking the talk? What are you currently reading? Are you reading something to help with your teaching, are you reading something for personal enjoyment, are you reading what your students are reading? It doesn't matter what you're reading or why, it just matters that you're reading! I'm going to pass out signs for us to hang up outside of our rooms for you to write what you're currently reading, this was the idea I stole from Kids Deserve It and it worked well for the school in the book. Now I know what you're thinking, I'm not actually reading, I'm listening to a book, you're right, but I'm still taking in the new knowledge. If you do not have an Audible account and would like to listen to a book, send me an email and I can send you a book and your first one is free. I want to reiterate, you don't have to be reading a book by the DuFour's or John Hattie, put your Nicholas Sparks book on your poster or the children's chapter book you're reading because one of your students recommended it to you! Just make sure you're reading, or listening, to something!
I'll kick you off with what I'm currently reading, it was a recommendation from Cretia and I'm totally into it, it's called Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance. While this book talks about education, it really has nothing to do with the education world, it's just what I'm currently reading. I can't wait to hear about what you're reading and to watch it create conversations about books between all the adults in the building and in turn show our students how important reading is!
Coming Up This Week
Tuesday January 22nd Emily and Susan at Region Assessment Conference
Thursday January 24th PLC (Remember to bring your agendas of what YOUR team needs)
Friday January 25th Principal's Luncheon