If you're just joining in on this series, here's what's going on:
I'm using the quotes as a basis for reflection on a shift in my professional journey. You see, for 12 years I was an elementary music teacher and now I've found myself to be an assistant principal. In a time that I anticipate to be filled with much personal and professional growth, I'd like to be sure and carve out some purposeful reflection time. As an educator, I've personally benefited from purposeful reflection through blogging and I can only imagine that I'll still benefit from reflective blogging as a leader in education.
My goal is to spend some time in each post writing about the quote, about the author of the quote (when possible), and about how I see the quote and/or the background image of the quote applying to my day-to-day world.
As a gal who always credits a source, I'd like to give a shout out to a dear friend, Kara Lowery, for coming up with the name of the series. Kara is a fabulous special education teacher who specializes in working with children who have autism. Not only is she a gifted teacher; she's also terrifically punny.
Read on; enjoy!
I think it's incredibly appropriate that this quote just happens to have landed as the first quote for the Stout Nation blog in 2018, given that it's about being new and breaking out. Just like how 2018 is new and breaking out.
On on unrelated to Peter Pan but related to the New Year note, my best friend and I have decided that--in some magical way--Mariah Carey's NYE performances set the tone for the upcoming year and sum up the previous year in a beautiful way.
For example, take her performance at the end of 2016. Our country had just elected a controversial president, many hearts were broken, and stuff was GOING ON. Her NYE performance was the perfect summation of 2016: she walked around a bit, lip synced in a not so great way, and pointed her microphone more at the audience than at herself. Oh 2016 (I mean, Mariah), go home. You need to put on some slippers and sit in your chair. You've earned it.
2017: Mariah pauses between her two songs and explains to the audience that she was told there would be tea. There has been no better phrase to sum up 2017 than "I was told there would be tea." I hope to use that phrase to punctuate any of the ridiculous that I know I'll encounter (as we all do from time to time) in 2018.
I'm going into this next semester full of joy and excitement. I'm looking forward to a few changes that we're making happen as soon as we get back from Winter Break and I anticipate that our students will be growing leaps and bounds. I've been able to build relationships with students, and I'm looking forward to seeing what their spring semester will be like. I've also been able to hang in some classrooms with some incredibly skilled teachers and I've been completely impressed with so many of their aspects of teaching. Each of the staff members I've gotten to see teach possess such different ways of being AWESOME, and it's so neat to be able to get to experience that and tell them why they're so fabulous. That's a major perk of being an assistant principal, for sure.
School starts back for us on January 8th. Until then, I'm drinking some hot tea because sometimes, Mariah, you gotta make the hot tea happen on your own.