A (School) Year in Review

I am about to wrap up my 8th year in education- a number that frankly seems impossible, because the time has flown by.  Although I have worked at two schools (soon to be three- but I'll get to that later), I have spent all 8 years in Berwyn South School District 100. I consider this district to be my little niche of happiness. I am allowed and encouraged to be myself and to flourish- and yes- teaching is hard- but I get through it with the amazing friends and work family I have created over the years.

I like to consider myself a very reflective teacher- it's something that I consider vital for growth in any field- but especially the land of education. Because of this, I wonder why, until this post, I have yet to sit down at the end of a school year and record my thoughts. Getting ideas down on paper is so powerful, and maybe because this year has been so full of changes (good and bad), I am excited to embark on this journey.

This blog, which I only started last year, has given me so much. It has provided a place to grow, learn, share, be vulnerable, be excited, make connections, and more! It has given me an audience to listen and share with, that in turn, I have read blogs and learned with and from people around the globe. Things I never would have stumbled upon before have entered my life because of blogging- and I am forever grateful for that.

So without further ado- I know you’re dying to actually get down to the nitty gritty and hear about this school year. SO much has happened, some things are changing, and some things will always stay the same.

Let’s start with some really positive and exciting events. This was the inaugural year of #D100bloggerPD, which I co-founded with fellow D100 Reading Specialist Colleen Noffsinger. Safe to say that if you have read my blog before, you know about #D100bloggerPD.  This is where we select books (from all areas) and do a blog book study (kind of like a jigsaw) with other members (both teachers and admin) from around D100. We have done 3 books this year: Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller, Move Your Bus by Ron Clark, and Hacking Education by Mark Barnes and Jennifer Gonzalez. Each one has gotten better and better and the impact of #D100bloggerPD has been amazing. We have involved so many teachers, from within D100 to all the way across the country, and we are all learning and growing together. Even though the school year is ending, #D100bloggerPD will keep going- in fact, we just announced our next blog study, and it will be on the book What Teachers Make by Taylor Mali. Even better news: Taylor Mali heard about our blog study via Twitter and had reached out to help and participate in a Twitter Chat. Hello, power of Twitter! And the power of good people getting together to learn and improve themselves. Not for pay, not for recognition- just for the purpose of learning. 

Also exciting this year was I continued doing something I love- presenting at #edtech conferences- and this year I got to bring my husband in on it! We co-wrote a presentation called “Educator Expectations in the 21st Century” and were able to share this with audiences at Illinois State University’s T21CON (Teaching in the 21st Century Conference) in

September, Waukegan Google ’n More in January, and ICE (Illinois Computing Educators) in February. I love this presentation because it’s not about one buzzword in education. It’s about motivating people to be the very best they can be while fusing in some 21st century skills along the way.

There is no “trick” to teaching. There’s just good teachers who never give up and surround themselves with a PLN (professional learning network) of other like minded individuals, and then they all make a vow to never stop improving. And yes, that is as hard as it sounds. But you work at it. Constantly. I also attended EdCamp Chicago- which was held at my husband Peter’s school (Churchville Middle School in Elmhurst, IL) back in April with some D100 friends and some of my extended D205 family. It was a fantastic day of learning and growing (organized by the amazing Ben Hartman and his EdCamp Chicago Team) and days like that make it very obvious why EdCamps are so popular! 

Speaking of conferences, I get to knock something off my bucket list next year thanks to my proposal acceptance to present at the IRC (Illinois Reading Council) Conference. As a reading specialist, this conference is the top of my ladder. All the best voices in reading attend and present at this conference- and I am MORE than excited that this will be me next year. I will be presenting on Using Technology to Improve Reading Instruction- a presentation geared towards Pre-K to 3rd grade teachers that will focus on infusing technology into the core building blocks of reading instruction.

To keep the trend of getting good news going, I found out early May that I will be awarded the Outstanding Young Alumni Award from the Illinois State University College of Education in the fall during the Homecoming festivities. This is a HUGE honor and one that I am more than humbled to receive. My husband won this award two years ago and wholeheartedly deserved it- so to not only follow in his footsteps but also blaze this trail of my own is amazing. I consider ISU to be my home- a place that molded me into a student/teacher/person who never gives up and keeps growing. The motto, Gladly We Learn and Teach, sums it up perfectly. We must always keep learning in order to be the best teacher we can possibly be. I just really can’t put into words everything this University and the College of Education has done for me.  If you are a regular on my blog, you also know that Illinois State is where I met my husband (an amazing educator who I talk about ALL the time- sorry!), which is just another reason to love my alma mater. Plus, being able to be ‘lovebirds’ (the ISU mascot is the Redbird) is pretty adorable!

Speaking of my husband, being married to a teacher has its perks. And this year- the perks lined up (for only the 2nd time in 8 years) and we had the same spring break.

We were able to take our baby birds (get it…lovebirds have baby birds…) on a spring break road trip-visiting various museums over the span of five different states. I know what you’re thinking- those poor kids get to go to a bunch of museums while other kids get to go to Disney! But seriously- they loved it! Being the kids of two teachers has definitely shaped them into little adventure-loving learners. We are so proud of the kids they are growing up to be. This year, more than ever, I have noticed them growing up way too fast. 

Brayden (our oldest) just finished Pre-K and therefore starts Kindergarten in the fall. This is impossible. My baby just can’t be turning 5 and going off to elementary school. I just don’t get it.

And Olive….our feisty, take charge, run the world 3 year old- she’s keeping right up with her older brother.

It’s hard to believe (but wonderful) that we are over and done with with all things baby. No more bottles, diapers, cribs, making baby food, and sadly, no more sleepy baby snuggles in the middle of the night. Those days might be gone- but I know I can speak for Peter and say that we cannot wait to fill those days with new memories and new adventures. Watching your kids grow up is a pleasure I didn’t fully understand until now.

So many positive things happened this year that it’s hard to remember them all. I almost forgot to mention the amazing #edtech conference that my district hosts- iEngage! This is an amazing event that just wrapped its second year- both of which I was in charge of all things registration.

This includes the registration website, the schedule website, the logistics of how much food to order (eek! can’t mess that up!), and how many seats to lay down. I wrote a reflection post last year which sums up a lot of the emotions and craziness of organizing this conference. This year the conference was, again, a huge success- due in large part to the fantastic iLead team led by Jordan Garrett. We all had a role and worked together to execute the conference beautifully- of which hundreds of educators from in and out of Illinois came to learn. 

This year iEngage was a little rough for me because, unfortunately, my grandma was admitted to the hospital on the Thursday before the two day conference which happened Friday 4/29 and Saturday 4/30. I spent the evening of that Thursday in the hospital with my family, left late and arrived in Berwyn at 5am to get ready for Friday. Friday was a huge success and at the end of the day, I drove back to the hospital. Stayed late again and was back in Berwyn by 6am Saturday for day 2 of iEngage. Once again, a huge success and then my husband and I drove back to the hospital. This time we spent the night with my family in the room, and sadly, in the middle of the night, surrounded by her loved ones, my grandma passed away. I couldn’t even write in this blog post the millions of things this woman has done for me in my lifetime. I couldn’t possibly put into words the feeling you have when you experience the first death of someone close to you. I have learned to look at this in a positive light. I was only born with 2 grandparents living and I made it until I was 30 years old before they both passed. Another positive- my grandma got to know my kids and vice versa.

This lady who had such a hand in raising me got to enjoy my kids growing up. She will forever be in their memories- in fact- they talk about her often. About her love of corn dogs, banana shakes from Culver’s, playing with toys at her house, and getting to hug and kiss her goodbye. Those memories are priceless. 

After her passing, I was so fortunate enough to be able to lean on so many friends and family to get me through this hard time. Being surrounded by people who love you is a blessing- and I am lucky to say I have a lot of people who love me. A husband who is my rock, kids who, while crazy, are my world, a family of strong people, and friends who would drop anything for me. A lot of those friends are people I work with, and have come to consider family, after working at Pershing the last two years. Being able to work in a school and a district that cares about you is not something I take lightly. 

This brings me to my last change. This is, likely, my last post as a Pershing Panther. I will be moving next year to Hiawatha, another elementary school in our district. I’m excited for change and the new opportunity, but it goes without saying that I will miss the people I have gotten to know these last two years. But I’m really only going about ten minutes away- so hopefully they won’t forget about me and we can grab lunch sometime!

If you’re still reading this- wow! That was so much! When I started out, I didn’t think I had much to reflect on this year. Turns out A LOT has happened. I didn’t intend for this post to get this long, but I’m kind of glad it did. Like I said, reflecting is key to growth. Writing everything down has a sort of healing power to it and it allows me to clear my mind for summer and next year. 

I can’t wait. 

What’s next? I’m going to go enjoy the end of the school year and summertime. You’ll see me back here at the end of June when we start to promote our next #D100bloggerPD- and that will begin July 21st! 

#D100bloggerPD: Move Your Bus! Part 1: Chapters 4-5

Thanks for joining me as I continue the #D100bloggerPD blog book study on Ron Clark's Move Your Bus. If you missed the first (and awesome) opening chapters from Colleen over at Literacy Loving Gals, you can check that incredibly thorough post out here. Then, after my post, stay with us every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in February for a new blog post reflection from this fantastic and motivational book. You can always follow the above schedule, follow the #D100bloggerPD hashtag on Twitter, or keep checking Colleen's blog for the newest link to the most recent post. Have you read the book? Do you want to participate? We'd love to hear your thoughts and reflections on the book as well- so if you read and make a reflection post, be sure to share it in the comments! 

Now onto my reflection. I will be reflecting on Part 1: Chapters 4 and 5. Typically, when reading short, motivational books like this one, I like to base my reflection off of quotes that jumped out to my as I read. That's what you're going to see here. I've picked out a series of five quotes from my two short chapters and will share them with you along with some thoughts and musings that I had while reading.

Up first is Chapter 4: Riders are Dead Weight. If you have no clue what a Rider is, you might want to check out Colleen's post (linked above) which explains the ongoing metaphor that Clark uses throughout his book of a bus, a driver, runners, joggers, walkers, and riders. 

As you can probably imagine, a rider is someone, who, on the bus, is not pushing the bus forward in any way, shape, or form. Of course, the bus, being the metaphor for your school, has no need for these riders and as he points out, they are simply dead weight. I think, without getting into details, that if we think about our experience in the field of education, that we all know at least one rider. They might not be at your school, maybe not even in your district, but I'm sure, if you think about it enough, you can identify a rider. Now think about that person. Are they adding to their school? Are they enhancing the educational and impressionable lives of the students they are teaching? My guess is that the answer, to both questions, is no. Clark talks about having worked with a rider in his early education career. He talks about how, as a runner, that he wanted to get this rider on board and at least get her walking. As you can see in the quote to the left, whenever he saw her teaching, he knew it was bad news. And because it bothered him, he tried to help this rider. 

But what he learned, and what is a lesson to all of us, is that riders, as the chapter is titled, are simply dead weight. You can put in countless hours trying to make a rider walk- but at what expense to you? and your students? This is what he realized- that by putting all his effort into this rider, it was only making her marginally better and holding himself back from being exceptional. He sums up his thoughts with the quote to the right- further proving that we need to devote our energy to the right places because just the effort it takes to get that rider to start working is not worth it. At first, this was hard for me to think about- because in a world of Tenure, sometimes there are riders and sometimes we can't do anything about it. However, if that is the case, that should be even more the reason to focus on the Runners- because they will move the bus along in far more significant ways than that rider and innately pick up their slack. Ideally, those riders will then realize that the runners are getting all the attention and all the perks that they will either become better, or leave.  So then as Clark went on to run his own (incredibly successful) school, he just simply operates under the fact that there is absolutely no place for riders. I have to say I agree with him. If you are in the education field and you are not, in any way, contributing to the greater good, then perhaps it's time to find a new profession. 

Next up is probably (it's so hard to pick just one!!) my favorite snippet from my two chapters. I love how Clark gets right to the point when he says, essentially, either work for it or get off the bus. 

You can't have a sense of entitlement just because you are smart. Being smart doesn't cut it- it's what you do with those smarts that matters. So if you're not willing to work, he's not going to put up with it. It's so startling at first to be so blunt (at least to me) but then when you let it sink in, it makes total sense. Why, if you're not here to give your best and work your hardest, are you even on the bus in the first place? Or maybe, you used to be working really hard at pushing your bus forward, but have since lost that passion, why are you still on the bus? Why still in the field of education- where- of any job- we have control of the future! I always like when people say that they have to do a good job at teaching their students because they will be controlling the future. Sometimes people mean it- and sometimes they say it in jest. HELLO!?! That's exactly what's happening here! Why would you not give it your 100%? Or, when you realize you can't do that, fix it or go.

Chapter 5: Drivers Steer the Organization was my second chapter for reflection. As you can imagine, it's about how the driver, in our case the principal, is the one who controls the direction in which your bus (school) is moving. My absolute favorite part of this section was one specific quote that focused on the spirit of the runners in the building. 

As you have learned from reading this so far- runners are what keep your building feeling alive and excited and keep the learning going at full speed. Clark points out in his book that runners are the ones that need to be kept happy- and that yes, they do make the occasional mistake, but that they are working so hard and fast that sometimes, one mistake happens out of a hundred attempts. That's certainly better than one mistake out of one attempt from a rider. So this quote, to the right, focuses on the fact that maybe, when the runner makes that on mistake, don't jump all over them for it. Or don't intentionally overlook an accomplishment of a runner to pump up a rider- at the expense of the runner's spirit. As I mentioned above- keeping your runner going full speed is much better than getting that rider to start working at all. So Clark points out that you must not, at any cost, kill the spirit of your runners. If a runner feels under appreciated or that their work may go unnoticed, then they might slow their running. They might feel as if all their efforts are for nothing. Now, because they are runners, they will likely keep running- but their spirit will be diminished and slowly their max speed might decrease. Nurturing runners is an important job of administrators- not because they are desperate for attention or because they are playing favorites- but because they should reward the hard work of those who are moving the bus the most. 

Following the logic of the last quote, Clark sums it up with this final thought- and I love how, as always, he just calls it like it is. If you want to work for Ron Clark, you must be a runner. If you are that runner who works for him, your life will be great. You'll be supported. You'll feel empowered. You will be appreciated and applauded and you will make the lives of students better every single day. Imagine if every principal in every school had this outlook. What would happen? What would that change look like in your building? In mine? It's certainly an interesting 'what if?' situation- but also, a 'why not?' situation. Why can't every school be full of runners? Why can't we all try, at all times, to be the best we can be? Because, ultimately, it's not about the driver or the runner. Or the joggers, walkers, or riders. It's not even about the bus. It's about the STUDENTS. Let's all just promise that every single day that we walk into a school- we will give our 100% effort to be doing the best we possibly can for the students who fill our classrooms. If that's our goal, our sole focus, I imagine our bus would be moving pretty fast.

If you want to keep following along with this Move Your Bus blog book study, be sure to check out Ginny's post on 2/5 for her reflection on the beginning of Part 2: Chapters 6 & 7. She will be guest blogging at Responsive Literacy.  And as always, follow along with our hashtag on Twitter: #D100bloggerPD to get the latest and most up to date happenings. Thanks for reading!

Want to follow along with us while we read? Grab your own copy of Move Your Bus!