Dandelions...Weeds or Wishes? Greg Furlich

As school administrators, we spend an inordinate amount of time and energy engaged in one of the least productive of practices, complaining. I am not here to argue that we have nothing to complain about. We spend a large portion of our time dealing with complaints ourselves. It can be draining to spend much of our mental energy dealing with the negative. When we take a parent call, it is rarely a compliment about a job well done and all too often a complaint about a teacher, a school policy, a student, or even another parent. It can be overwhelming. Those who know me well know that I can find some kind of perverse satisfaction in complaining and allowing myself to wallow in self-righteous indignation. It can feel pretty good to hang out in a state of mind that lets you complain about the fallibility of others. More and more I’ve been trying to get myself out of this place a little more expediently. I only have so much time and energy, and I know this is not a productive state of mind for me.

All school staff received an email recently from our superintendent noting that the celebration of Principal Appreciation Week and asking staff to make sure that they recognize and thank their principals.  I believe we need to take some time ourselves, principals and assistant principals alike, to simply appreciate how lucky we are to do what we get to do for a living.  Sure our jobs are not that easy and we carry a tremendous amount of responsibility on our shoulders every day. Being in charge of the safety and education of hundreds of children is a daunting responsibility.

Here are just a few of the things I was fortunate enough to get to do this week. I had the opportunity to read to a number of students in their classrooms, this after dressing up as a farmer to record myself reading the first chapter of our one book one school novel. Throughout the week I also had the reward of having students come to my room to read to me. On Tuesday evening we hosted an evening reading program which included a book swap and a magician. The highlight of the show involved me coming on stage to have an enormous wooden box placed over my head. With some sleight of hand, our guest performer made my head disappear. The students absolutely loved it, and I got comments on it the rest of the week from kids who were filled with wonder.

After a pretty good start to the week, Wednesday was a real highlight. I had the opportunity to visit the Tech Ed Center for a fifth grade version of Cake Boss. Our students worked with Tech Ed students to create science themed cupcakes. They used their knowledge of what they had learned in math and science about measurement and states of matter to create edible masterpieces.  I got to lead the judging along with a channel three news anchor and one of our newest school board members. That same afternoon I headed out to one of my former schools, Birdneck Elementary, to participate in a retirement celebration for their long time bookkeeper, Angie Gallihugh. It was inspiring to see how many people came out to honor someone who had dedicated so much of her life to caring for adults and kids.

Thursday might be seen as nothing special, by many, but I loved sitting in on math collaboration with first and third grades, discussing student work and playing computational fluency games. That same day I had time to work on interim evaluations, a chore I am guessing many of us dread. But the evaluations I was writing were for two young educators who have just grown in leaps and bounds in the last two years. When I left the classroom, I knew I would miss watching the progress my class of students would make over the course of a school year. Watching the progress of young educators who are thirsty for feedback and improvement however, has turned out to be a pretty good substitute.

We finished the week Friday at Rosemont Forest with book character dress up day. The office staff selected Alice in Wonderland and I happily spent the day in my Mad Hatter costume. I finished out the day sharing some ice cream with our citizens of the month. Getting to spend time with some amazing kids and super parents was a perfect way to head into the weekend.

Okay, yeah, I left out any number of frustrations I had to handle during the course of the same week. I dealt with my share of discipline referrals and underperforming adults along the way. I bet if you sit back and reflect on your week, it was a lot like mine. So, tell me what other job wraps this kind of joy and variety of activity into a single week? The next time you hear me start complaining about some aspect of this job, or heading down the path of indignation, do me a favor and remind me that I took the time to write this piece.