Big Wave Surfing

Peff Surfing Tavarua at age 70

My uncle Jeff is that person who everyone goes to for sage advice. He is a lifelong surfer, he flew helicopters in a war long forgotten by too many; when he strums the guitar it lights up a room; and he surfed big waves before big waves were co-opted by ESPN and the X Games. He is that guy that no matter what the stakes or how bad the odds, he never sweats, he always plays it cool. When Jeff was a kid, his older brother nick-named him Jeff-the-Peff and it stuck. Now in his 70’s, people young and old turn to him for one of his famous “Peff-talks.” If you have 15 minutes and you need some inspiration, a Peff-Talk is exactly what you need. Peff once gave me a piece of advice that may have saved me more times on land than in the ocean where it was intended to be used.

When you are surfing big waves, there is this terrifying moment affectionately known as living through the spin cycle. Paddling for shore as hard as you can, a wave lifts your feet directly to the sun and when you pop to a standing position, the world disappears below you and just then there is a moment of free fall. Next, if all goes well, you are cruising at top speed, down the line, the wave collapsing behind you like a massive fluid dinosaur rolling down a hill. Then it happens: maybe you take your eyes off the horizon, maybe you just glance down and something wobbles - the wave has got your board, you launch superman-style off the front of the stick in a diving position praying that you will punch through the wall of water in front of you and emerge out the other side as the wave rolls onward toward the shore.

No such luck. The human body is over 60% water. The wave is 100% in control. You enter the wave and become the wave. As it topples and crashes, you go with it. Right side up is now upside down and no effort you could possibly make has any bearing on the direction your limbs are being pulled. Surfers call it the spin cycle and it is a terrifying place to exist for any amount of time.

Peff asked me one day: “Can you hold your breath and count to ten?” He said no matter how big the wave, when you are being pushed or pulled, dragged across the reef or spun in the spin cycle, all you can do is relax and count to ten. If you know you can hold your breath for 10 seconds, then there is no reason to panic. You can't fight against the wave. So, go with it, stay relaxed, allow the machine to complete its cycle and all the while just count to ten. Jeff said, “You’ll always make it to the surface by ten, if not, you can panic then.”

In my nearly 20 years of working as an educator, I can think back to more than a few big wave wipeouts. The worst happen when I have just glanced down or maybe stared too hard at a problem that only got bigger because of the attention I had given it. It seems the unspoken lesson may be, that in an effort to avoid the wipeout in the first place, it is best to keep your eyes up and your focus on the direction you are headed.

Regardless, there are those times when, without fail, we all wipeout: an angry parent, or a whole room of angry parents; a news crew at the curb because a student made a horrible decision; a news crew at the curb because a teacher made a horrible decision; almost any news crew; the fire alarm during the homecoming dance; 20 kids fighting in the intersection; that first moment you walk onto campus in the morning to find the entire school has been tagged with gang graffiti overnight; senselessly losing a student; losing a beloved teacher; the phone call in the middle of the night and that moment before you answer knowing it can't be good; the list could go on and on. The truth is, no matter where you are in your career, whether you are in the classroom, and your list is filled with big-wave wipeouts in front of students, parents and administration or you are the principal and you get stuck in the spin cycle at a staff meeting, just relax, hold your breath and count to ten.

I have been lucky enough to coach some amazing people during my career. I have watched new administrators get grilled sitting across the table from advocates with a blood lust. I have sat with teachers in parent meetings so tense you could strum the room like a harp. Each time I have the opportunity to work with anyone in this industry, who may meet a force moving full speed ahead like a wall of water, I give them the same advice. You can’t shout back at a roaring wave and you can’t change its course. Relax, count slowly inside your head, stay poised, allow the force in motion to roll past you, without expending too much of your own energy, then you can get back on your board and paddle again. It is one of the hardest things to do, but staying calm, resisting the urge to meet force with force, always pays off. I have found that regardless of position or title, the person who stays relaxed, and fights the least, is always looked to as the leader during a crisis.

Every terrifying moment passes. Each of them go more smoothly when you are able to use Peff’s technique and avoid panic. A large intake of oxygen just before the point of impact, then counting to 10, will get you through almost anything.

Always Look Back

Our school sent some fifth grade students to the local Air Force base on a field trip. So much fun: flight simulators and dreams of aerial somersaults captured the attention of all but a few. The lessons were ubiquitous: engineering matters, preparation is key to a successful mission, math is EVERYWHERE. The lesson I latched on to most was this: a pilot may spend 30 minutes in a briefing meeting to prepare for a rather mundane one hour flight, then one hour in the air, but once they land, they may spend two and a half hours debriefing. That means the pilot spends more time talking about the flight after she has landed than the time it took her to prepare and fly combined!

Can you imagine the implications of this same structure in our education industry? What if for every one hour math lesson, you took 30 minutes to pre-brief the mission, then you delivered the lesson, then spent TWO HOURS debriefing that single lesson!

This past Thursday was our last day of school. We had all staff, over 120 of us, all in one great big room. We hired a fantastic caterer, we printed individualized name placards with personalized notes enclosed; we scrolled a Google Slideshow: each slide featured a staff member's picture and a note written by one of our parents showing gratitude for our staff. The day kicked off with a waffle bar and rolled right into celebrations as we passed the mic. We all laughed, a few of us cried, but we all seemed connected after 180 days of the struggle.

My favorite part of the day was the reflections. We built a 30 foot long timeline; it had the school logo and it was decked out in the school colors. The timeline started in August of 2015 and ended in June of 2016. Some amazing staff had pre-placed some pictures of major events and celebrations on the timeline, so, to someone who didn't know better, they'd think the timeline was completed before our reflection walk even stated. In front of the table were nearly 300 printed pictures from events and photo opportunities throughout the year. Staff took a gallery walk across the printed pics, grabbing the ones that made them smile, then cruised down the timeline for some inspiration. We then had time to share, via post-it note, memorable moments professionally, personally and as a team.

The end product was so amazing it was hard to take it down. Literally hundreds of post-its with truly heartfelt and impactful memories of moments that spanned across the ten month timeline. Someone remember the day they announced they were pregnant, right next to a teacher who scored their first bundle of joy from Donors Choose. On one end of the timeline somebody got engaged, and on the other end they got married. People remembered CUE Conferences, workshops, staff lead PD, field lessons, special guests, school events and one person recalled that a particular student of hers had a "Complete Breakthrough" on October 23, 2015.

Somebody might ask if it is worth it. Why take the time to feed people, celebrate them, and ask them to spend time reflecting on a year that is in the past? Some people may say it is "Touchy Feely." I once had a superintendent look me right in the face and tell me that, "Morale is bullshit, results are what matter." Well, excuse my printing it on the internet but I think that opinion is bullshit. Our staff prepare for challenging missions all the time, they often fly solo without even a wingman overseeing their six: the very least we can do is to take a little time to debrief the mission before sending them off on 8 weeks of R&R, then launching them back into it all over again in the fall.

Always Changing

I've got a great gig, as the Executive Director of an incredible school with two campuses, I try to split my time equally between hiding in my office cranking out Board Briefs and what not, versus popping back and forth between campuses to catch a glimpse of all the magic that is Kindergarten through Eighth grade. There is no easy gig in education, but some are certainly more consistent than others: what I dig about this job is - it is always changing.

This week I drafted some PD plans for the 16-17 year on Monday morning and then got to swing by Kinder-Coders as they launched Bee-Bots and rocked some entry level Hour of Code in the afternoon! Between Tuesday and Wednesday it was reviewing Bylaws, Board Calendars, and coaching principals in the office, but in the halls the STEAM Days continued K-3 while the 4th graders staged a three ring Pioneer Day with all the trimmings.

Parents, staff and students dressed in gold rush regalia, students learned to write with quills, spin

rope, pan for gold and even hung out with a real blacksmith on site who stoked the fire and bent iron ore to the delight of all! The Pioneer day ended in the afternoon with a full blown square dance in the cafeteria!

The next morning I met with the construction team and watched massive bulldozers push dirt at the new school site where we have just broken ground. By the mid-day the the eighth graders demonstrated their physics chops by competing in the "Protect Your Melon Project," (like an egg-drop but larger and with a sillier

name), meanwhile while sixth grade math students tried to explain solar power by disassembling cell powered lights. That night was the Governance Committee Meeting followed by the Board Meeting. By Friday, I looked back at the week and realized that this gig is different every day and always changing...which for anyone who has taught 4th/5th grade...you know how I ended my week.

Yup, the boys were separated from the girls into two separate rooms. The third room was solitary confinement for those kids that didn't get a permission slip filled out by mom. I drew the short straw this year because we needed someone to man the boys room to watch the annual 19 minute, right of passage film, all about the power of puberty: Always Changing. So, there I was with 54 ten year old boys in Mrs. C’s room. When the movie was over, I asked the boys if it was ok that Mrs. C step out so we could talk...just us guys. Silence and head nods. The movie was still processing in their minds. Each wrote at least one question on a slip of paper and placed them in the box. Part of my job is negotiating multi-million dollar contracts, I have been asked point blank questions that I shouldn’t answer for fear of due process, but no previous experience prepared me for a room full of pre-pubescent boys all angling at an appropriate way to ask the big questions that were on all their minds.

Needless to say, there is never a dull moment at my job, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

A Glimpse of Reflection

Have you ever walked past a storefront window, maybe you looked down to check your phone, and out of the corner of your eye, you caught a glimpse of your own reflection? At first you have that lighting fast reaction and for just a split second you think, "Hey, I know that guy," then you realize it's you. Maybe you love the way you look, maybe you realize it’s time to buy a treadmill, or maybe you wonder, "Is this the way everyone sees me?"

A couple weeks ago, +Jay Willis called me up and asked if I would like to tell my #EduLeader story on his podcast: Educators Lead. To be honest, I was super flattered and thought, "What the heck? I'm in!"

I blocked off an hour of time, shut my office door, and when the time came, I jumped on the wifi and rapped with Jay. He and I had never met, but Jay must talk to a lot of initially nervous people, because, within a few moments, we were talking shop like we'd worked together for years.

Jay asked about this and we talked about that, and before I knew it I was telling stories I hadn't even remembered that I'd lived. Once you reach far enough back and uncork the past, the stories seem to have a way of taking on a life of their own. Before I knew it, our time was up, and Jay was letting me know that the podcast would be posted soon.

It is genuinely the busiest time of the year in the busiest job I have ever known, so, the weeks that flew by made it easy to forget that I was waiting for the podcast to post.

When it did, it was just like that moment in the store front window: I heard my voice and realized it was me. There was a story that I told about a kid who had long ago wandered out of my life, I forgot that I even told that story until I listened to the podcast. I have since had a few mom's at my school tell me, "I listened to your podcast, it made me cry." At first, I don't think I realized why people were at all moved by the story of a school administrator, but then it dawned on me: we all spend so much of our lives wearing a mask, trying to look like we have it all under control - I know I do. Every once in awhile, when we are not focused on the mask, but instead are just caught up in a moment, we let our guard down and get just a glimpse of what we look like when we are being ourselves. I think Jay Willis offered me the chance, like the storefront window, to catch a glimpse of myself when I wasn't looking.  

It is an honor to tell my story, and I am #thankful to Jay for helping me capture it. Even the hard times in leadership are worth remembering because we should all take a moment to learn from our own stories.

If you'd like to take a listen, check it out here: http://www.educatorslead.com/johneick/