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.