Many of our students and a few of our staff me members just celebrated Eid after a month of Ramadan. We decorated our school, set up a system for prayer and organized locations for our students to go during lunch if they were fasting. Most importantly though, throughout this month I have hoped our students felt our respect for the special time in their religion. As our students return to school from Eid, I know that we all will take a moment to ask them how their celebrations were and give them time to share about the fun they had. Yesterday, Stef and Mallory received this message from a parents. I know we are making a difference in the lives of all of our students and families. Take a look: Our parents feel that we LOVE and care for their kids!
LOVE is truly an intervention! Please don't forget that!
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On Monday, I got to do recess duty with our 3rd graders. It was a warm spring day and the kids were having a great time. A few kiddos ran up to me and handed me some dandelions. I'm sure that as teachers the same things has happened to you countless times! On this day though I was struck by the HUGE smile on the children's faces and the words of one child in particular, "Mrs. Prati! I picked these FLOWERS for YOU!" The first thing I thought was how funny it was that kids didn't think dandelions were weeds. I happened to turn around to look towards where this kiddos had picked the dandelions and this is what I saw..... I thought this was the sweetest moment. A bunch of kids picking flowers....or are they weeds? Well to them, they were the most beautiful flowers!
It seems like kids always have the most positive perspective on things. Throughout the rest of this week, when I've been faced with hard situations and things that I don't particularly like, I've thought about this questions, "Is it a weed or a flower?". This question has helped me reframe the situation in my mind and look for the good! Have a great end of your week and may all of your weeds turn into FLOWERS! I came across this post the other day and saved it so I could share it with you. Don't ever forget about the impact of teachers! I feel like right now we are in the middle of everyone's political views. I pray that society calms down, realizes how important teachers are and stops politicizing public education. Very few people outside of education truly understand how the negativity in society is impacting us. So, I hope you know that you are appreciated and valued by many. Do not listen to the loudest meanest voices.
Last week I wrote about finding the good and the positive in each day. We all know that what we focus on is what we see. I have been very intentional about focusing on POSITIVE this week.
On Tuesday, it was impossible not to see the GOOD when Nathan's mom showed up with a fully homemade meal for us! She was so proud and so was Nathan. We had been on a meeting with mom earlier that day and through an interpreter she told us that she was bringing us cake! We were pretty excited about the cake and then we were beyond surprised when she arrived with two cakes, homemade guacamole, tacos, cheese, lettuce, plates, and more! Not only did she bring food but she stayed to serve us. She set up and entire spread in my office. It was so sweet. Nathan's mom doesn't speak a lot of English at all but she was able to express her gratitude through food and serving us. Her gesture remind me of the power of kindness and the importance of serving others. Have a great LONG weekend. You earned it! Our behavior is important. Many of us have spent years learning about R Factor and we all know that "it has to happen IN us before it can happen through us". I have told many of you that I have had a rough week. But, this morning I woke and saw this: This quote made me reflect on my behavior. Don't get me wrong, we're all allowed to have bad days, weeks, minutes, hours, whatever. But, what I was allowing myself to do was tolerate it and wallow in it. I pride myself on being a leader who models resilience, a growth mindset and calm in the face of chaos. This quote re-centered me. And, today I'm looking for all the good, positive and amazing and guess what, I AM SO MUCH HAPPIER.
Please know that I will ALWAYS support you in your journey through life and through this crazy career we have in education. I am so thankful that our culture is fun, positive and collaborative even when things are EXTRA CRAZY! The end is near. We are going to make it to the finish line of a tumultuous school year! We started with masks and are ending without masks...that's progress for sure! Just one year ago we had barely been back to school with all of our kids for two weeks! TWO WEEKS! That is crazy!
And now...here we are! On Tuesday Amanda and I got to go to a training with, Judie, one of our consultants from 95% group. Judie always has really smart and inspirational things to say all the time! This time she briefly made a comment about how close we are to the end of the school year and I can't stop thinking about her words: "We're almost to the end of the year but this is NO TIME TO COAST! KEEP PEDALING, ALL THE WAY TO THE END!" She's so right! Our kids have SO MUCH more to learn between now and May 27th! Let's keep the rigor and expectations high. Let's keep our eyes on those end of year benchmarks and work to get our kids where they need to be. In the spring of 2020 we were just coming to terms with shutting down and moving to remote learning for the remainder or the school year. We were mourning the loss of this valuable time of the school year! Let's celebrate the fact that we GET to have this time with our kids and make the best of it! As we get ready for spring break I know it can be hard to let yourself relax. We give everyday, to everyone. But, I challenge you to think about YOURSELF over the next week. Remember our one word this year is BE. And, I want to remind you that it is okay to just BE. I hope you give yourself time to do nothing, relax and rejuvenate next week. You deserve it.
This is my Grandma Jan, my mom and my three aunts in November at Thanksgiving.
My grandma is 86 years old and has lived a great life. Today, she is nearing the end of her life even though she looked perfectly healthy just 3 months ago. Hospice has been called in to help her and on Tuesday she was asking for her whole family. So, her 4 daughters, 7 grandchildren, sons in law, 90 year old brother and her niece all spent the entire day with her. She kept holding our hands and wanted us to stay in her bedroom with her. She would look into all of our eyes and tell us how much she loved us. (Side note-when she saw me she said "Jacki, look at you, you are just the director of this whole trip"....She certainly has me pegged! Accurate grandma!) Tuesday was a reminder to me of what is truly important. It's truly a gift to be able to witness someone who is at the end of their life and who is showing you the true meaning of life. Family is what is important. Kindness is important. (She also told us to make sure we give back...she said "If you have 10 cents, give away 5 cents." That made me laugh, but I knew what she meant.) I know these last few years have been crazy with a pandemic, political unrest, community upheaval over masks and vaccinations and more, but as we say "LOVE IS AN INTERVENTION". Let's remember that. Yesterday a little sweet girl from Karen's class brought me two bracelets that she had made in After School Adventures, one for me and of course one for Dolly! It really warmed my heart. I put it on and wore it the rest of the day...well most of the day.
Later on, I was having the BEST time in Kelly's kindergarten classroom. I mean I was ALL IN walking around looking at kids' writing; talking to kids about stretching out words; asking kids to read their stories to me; I was in my happy place. Then, all of a sudden I thought I heard a man's voice. At first I ignored it because, well, I was having fun with little kids. Then, I thought maybe I was having a stroke or something, so decided to just keep ignoring this voice I was hearing. And THEN, I got really concerned because the voice was saying "DO YOU NEED HELP"!! At this point I stopped what I was doing and frantically looked around, then I noticed that my apple watch said "911" on it in big bold print. I started hitting the end button but nothing was happening. The man kept saying "WHAT IS YOUR EMERGENCY"! When I realized what was happening I ran out of Kelly's room and stood in the hall. I was yelling into my watch saying "I'm fine. Hello? Can you hear me?" The voice said, "Hold on!" I'm standing there thinking, "who in the heck tells you to hold on when you're talking to 911?". So, I tried to act natural because kids were walking by me in the hallway. After a few seconds I said, "Hello? Can you hear me?" The voice said, "where sending help to your location." I said, "No! No! I'm fine. It was an accident. I'm an elementary school principal and I must have hit a button on my watch on accident. Please don't send anyone." Luckily the voice on my watch believed me and said that he would cancel the dispatch. The bracelet is now safely in Dolly's bowl where it can cause no more panic. The morale of the story is....well, there really isn't a morale except that I want you to know that I am a HOT MESS so that when you have a HOT MESS day you know that you aren't alone. |
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