I would like to mention to anyone within shouting distance that I am back for my sixth year as principal of my little elementary school on the mesa. Despite the fact that my district has either A: Forgotten I am the principal out there or B: was truly desperate when I was hired, I am back for another year of learning and fun.
I would like to tell you that change doesn't bother me at all, but I would be slightly untruthful about this if I did tell you so. Change is inevitable in any school..and usually really a good thing, on some levels. But I will just mention that it is hard at the moment to write a welcoming back to school letter to the staff when I am not sure what is going to be true in the letter when they get it in a day or so.
Think I could start with "Hold on to your shirts, ladies and gentlemen?"
The one thing that I know for a certainty as an educational leader is that although chaos may be swirling around you (Kind of like Hurricane Hugo did to poor Charleston) said educational leader must remain calm, cool, and collected in the face of the debris that is sweeping past everyone's faces. I am normally very good at that..with the exception of having beekeepers that decided to disturb a nest during school hours, leaving numerous stings on my faces as I marched indignantly after said beekeepers..trying not to choke them for hurting my students and scaring people to death. That, I think is a bit justified.
Change..and the concept of it can be unsettling to people, or it can be exciting and life changing. I have always thought that when things began to change, or if possibilities come up, it is always good from my perspective that I when I am a little nervous about something, it usually works out well. Don't ask me why..It's kind of like the dream I used to have before school started when I was teaching. I would dream that I would walk into my first grade/kindergarten/second grade classroom, and there would be gigantic football players sitting at the tables, informing me that why yes, they were in my class for the year. When I woke up trembling (yes, I am a bit intimidated by people taller than I am) this dream would guarantee that I would have a great first day of school. The one year I didn't have this dream, I walked to pick up my new Kindergarten class, watching small boys circling the room as a piranha circles toes in the Amazon River...causing great confusion and a lot of delay to my neatly planned and orderly first day of school.
That one year was the reason I loved my Football player dream. I will note I do not have a football player dream for my first days of school as an administrator. I am sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for why that is, but I can't think of why my brain wouldn't cooperate about this at the moment.
So this year, I am noting that I am a little on edge and a bit nervous about the changes that may entering my comfort zone at school. And to be honest, that is a good thing. I know that things happen for a reason and when they are supposed to happen. The universe has a way of taking care of things and situations that always tends to work out more successfully than what I have envisioned in my small principal like brain.
So I will continue preparing schedules, hiring the remaining staff we need to hire, print calendars, and look forward to more change and more exciting possibilities around the corner. I am fortunate to be in an environment where the impossible can come possible every day.
And buying new Sharpies to begin the year is always a bonus. :)
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