Summer, is where hope resides for every school leader who “believes”. Summer, not spring, for school leaders is where “hope springs eternal”. The mistakes from last year are in the past and serve only as reminders of what we won’t repeat. Next time, there will be a plan. There will be a person who has a role that will encompass every problem we can imagine, an adult for every kid having a meltdown, a person and time for every checkbox on a to-do list.
In the hope of summer, teachers will not quit in October because they will feel well-supported through what is usually the toughest month. This October, students will remain just as well-behaved as they were the first day of school. Speaking of the first day of school, everyone who signed on to work this upcoming school year will be accounted for and present. No one will quit the first day, the first week, month or semester. We will start as the same team we finish as in May.
This will not be through some sheer force of will or magical thinking.
It will happen because we, as a school, understand which problems are common and can be planned for. If we face unusual problems, they won’t overwhelm us due to the systems we have in place.
Every student will feel valued, treated fairly and heard.
Unless of course there’s a fight or investigation that takes all day to sort through…
Or a violent stomach bug that ransacks an entire grade…
Or a natural disaster occurs and we’re out of school for two weeks…
Or a teacher falls madly in love with someone they met on Hinge and decides to move out of state, or to Australia…
Or your new class of kids becomes “that class” everyone, every year loathes and you are fighting all year to keep your teachers aboard and have a growth mindset…
Wait. No. We’re spiraling.
It’s July.
We have time to think these situations out, to come up with systems for our systems. We can start fostering growth mindsets in our teachers now. Even if there’s a stomach bug, or a hurricane, a blizzard, heck, even a pandemic. We know what to do. We’ve been there before and we made it. Every student will be heard, valued and treated fairly. And nothing, not even Australia is going to stop that.
