The Forty- Hour Principal... does such a thing exist?...

Reading all the amazing classroom blogs this afternoon has motivated me on a couple of levels...

1) An attack of the guilts for not posting last week.  How did I miss that calendar reminder?... ECK!!  

2) Looking at all the great learning going on in the classes made me proud of the teachers and their journey with both Distance Learning and also giving new things a go.  

3) And most importantly looking at the beautiful pictures of students enjoying their learning at home.  It is 100% about the kids!  Hopefully, you don't think that's cheesy... but it is!

Gratefulness

A bit of fortuitous timing but my new professional reading turned up last week. It's called "The Forty-Hour Principal" and the quick overview is 

* Challenging the way I lead the school (always good to have something to provoke deeper thought, I figure)

* Expose the truth about why you do some of the stuff you really shouldn't ("expose" is interesting isn't it.... clearly some more deep thinking is going to happen)

* Share ways to make this crazy, all-consuming job we do better - better for the kids, and better for you.  Sounds like a win/win here doesn't it!  

Anyway I am up to Chapter 11 and as promised I am doing lots of great reflection on how I do things, for myself and the impact it has on others.  Chapter 4 and 5 looks at emotions and I really connected with those Chapters and I'm working on looking at Gratefulness in my life at both school and home.  Taking the time to take stock and think what I am loving here...

School Gratefulness

At the risk of starting with lots of surface level choices...

* The painting - I love that every day that I go to school feels like another episode of changing rooms. I am looking forward to the installation of our new signage and seeing our 'The New Windsor Way' integrated and visible in our learning environment.  

* The MURAL - it's beautiful and I'm so grateful that we were able to get this project off the ground.  This is bigger than the NWS school community and I hope it brings lots of people JOY! Given that I understand that New Windsor Road/Maioro are the 8th and 9th busiest roads in NZ we can anticipate that it's going to have a big audience daily! 

* The Shade System and Turf -  I love the practicality of a turf for children and I am looking forward to the install of our new turf installation beginning shortly.  

I was talking to a Principal from another school yesterday aand I was waxing lyrical about how lucky we were with our wonderful facilities - great pool, Hall/Auditorium, new Shade System, classroom upgrades, even a beautiful view.  As you can imagine he got over my bragging - emotional intelligence reminder, don't thrust it down people's throats.  

So as you can see I have a whole lotta love!  

.....Next time I am going to talk about the learning and our great teachers.  

I promise to not skip past that calendar reminder.  

Lisa - Miss H