Just about one year ago, in my first blog post (Resolution 2017?), I made a pseudo resolution to post a reflection each week on what I was reading, working on in school, or what was taking place in education. It wasn’t really a resolution because the start of the new year wasn’t the inspiration, but rather something I read in George Couros' book "Innovator's Mindset" and the subsequent visit to his blog page George Couros: Principal of Change. In short, he emphasized the importance of getting your thoughts down on “paper” and out to others for feedback. This will be my 46th post of the year, I only posted once in June and July due to the slower pace at work, and I have to say I am surprised at how much I look forward to looking back at the week each Saturday morning. Posting my reflections forced me to process the week and allowed me to organize my thoughts which then led to the unexpected benefit of them being more accessible during conversations with colleagues. That is when the real value kicked in for me.
Rick DuFour & Michael Fullan’s observed, “If there is one consistent lesson that emerges from studies of the change process, it is that no one leader has all the energy and expertise to reform...a district, improve a school, or meet the needs of students in the classroom each day” (DuFour & Fullan, 2013, p. 24). Change, and the ability to sustain it, can’t come from one person, but must be brought about through nurturing the ideas of the teachers throughout the district and that nurturing takes place through conversations. My conversations with teachers, instructional coaches, administrators, and even our young people and their parents were more natural because my thoughts on the schools was more accessible thanks to these weekly reflections. Of course, you don’t have to put your reflection out there through a blog, but I can’t tell you the number of times someone brought up a topic “from the blog” in a conversation with me. Sometimes it came from people I had no idea were even “following” what I was posting, but it still led to some great discussions on education...it has been awesome. So, like I said earlier, you gotta try this!
Because it is the end of the year, I thought I would do a Casey Kasem American Top 40-like breakdown of the “greatest hits of the year”. However, because I don’t really have any “hits”, I am limiting it to the Top 5 most viewed “Greenmen Steward” blog posts from 2017 plus an extra post that you probably never read, but I still thought was worth pointing out.
February 4th
April 29th
November 4th
November 25th
December 16th
January 21st
If you are still reading this post, I wanted to be sure to thank you for taking time from your day to read through these posts and even more so if it led to a conversation with a colleague. Happy New Year!
References
DuFour, R. & Fullan, M. (2013). Cultures built to last: Systemic PLCs at work.
Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
This work inspires me. Now that I have a little time back, I may give this a go (though it is quite unlikely that it will happen at 5:30 on a Saturday morning).
ReplyDeleteTry it out! Thanks for the comment. By the way, I think my post is on Mountain or Pacific time, because I am also not up at 5:30 a.m. posting. :)
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