I feel like there is a renewed energy around our school! It's so fun to see toothless grins and smiling faces. This has been a long time coming and I hope you are enjoying every minute!
We've been through a lot! This is just a little step towards "normal"! Enjoy your LONG weekend! You earned it.
0 Comments
Wednesday morning at 7:44am I walked through the front doors of J.W. Reason. I said my obligatory "hellos" and my head was racing with all the things I needed to accomplish. The Power Hour kids were in the hall, so I was trying to smile through my mask and tell them good morning, but really I was trying to get into my office and get started with my day.
As I walked by Eli, I heard him mumble something about his sister. My mind immediately went to "great he's telling me something that his sister did and now I'm going to have to call parents and this day is going to suck!" I somewhat abruptly said "What?" And at that time his sister Bella was standing next to me, too. She was looking up at me with excitement in her eyes, so then my mind went to "oh great someone did or said something to them and they want to get that person in trouble". I was annoyed and I really didn't want to start the day like this. As all of these negative thoughts were going through my head, I was clearly not allowing myself to live in the moment because what both kids were trying to telling me, with a gleam in their eyes was that BELLA ADOPTED A POLAR BEAR FOR HER BIRTHDAY! As soon as I heard these words it was like I had been snapped back into reality. They were both so excited and so was I! I took a quick second to really be present with them in their excitement. And, I was reminded that we often create our own chaos in our minds. My anticipation of something bad almost caused me to miss the adorable moment with these cute kiddos! My experience reminded me to slow down, take a step back and see the reality of each situation before jumping to any assumptions. This definitely isn't easy to do while working in an elementary school with so much coming at all of us from a 1,000 directions, but if we can begin to work on slowing our minds down and focusing on the moment, we might find that things aren't as chaotic and crazy as we make them out to be. PS---Bella's polar bear is named Barbara :)
On Thursday, Michael sent me this video about Joe Burrow. You might remember his Heisman acceptance speech. He spoke of poverty and food insecurity in his home town in Athens county. He made an impact in only 31 seconds! She said that when she watched it she was reminded of how we all keep striving to spread love and kindness to our kids at JW.
Michael's text to me that accompanied the video said "We each have a platform to make a difference, to contribute to society. We may not have a microphone and a stage that reaches the entire country in 31 seconds, BUT, relationship by relationship, kind act after kind act, and the desire to be a shining light WILL spread and impact a greater population than you can imagine. Do not be inactive because you don't have a platform...you absolutely have a platform on some scale to use!" I know our work isn't easy, but don't forget that we have an important platform to use to make the lives of our kids so much better! Changing behavior is hard.
One of the behaviors that is "below the line" is being on autopilot. This week my husband was annoyed that my daughter was wearing Crocs to go outside on a snowy day. She was just walking to the car because she was going to put her basketball shoes on when she got to practice. He said (in a loud voice), "Seriously! Put on different shoes. You can't wear Crocs in the snow!" I overheard this from the kitchen and immediately opened the door and said, "She can wear Crocs! Jeez! Stop yelling." Then I grabbed my keys and took her to practice. Later, Justin and I talked about this. He felt like I "over parented". And, I felt like he needed to press pause and speak to her without yelling. In fact, I told him that if he had just said, "Rosa, remember the last time you wore your Crocs to practice in the snow? Your socks got all wet and you were miserable! Can you wear different shoes?" I wouldn't have felt the need to interject. I thought I was being REALLY helpful telling him about this! But, Justin pointed out a few important things to me. He shared that sometimes I react in a similar way with our kids. He gave me several examples of times I have yelled and being instead of calmly explaining things to the kids, like I'd asked him to do. Darn it, he was right! So, I sucked up my pride and I said, "You know what, you're right! I do the same thing. I'm going to work on that." In reflecting I realized that I fall into autopilot frequently. And, even thought I say this all the time, I wasn't living it---I can only only control MY RESPONSE to events. What situations have happened to you lately in which you've fallen into autopilot? How could pressing pause have helped you change your outcome? Remember, we are all a work in progress. For me, it was very liberating to admit that I was wrong. In fact, admitting it was actually easier than attempting to defend myself. Who knew?!?! I'm waving the white flag. I have nothing inspirational to say today! I don't have any funny stories and I haven't learned anything this week.
Guess what?!?! It's okay! I'm letting myself just embrace this week as what it is! After being out all last week, I GOT to go to a PD at Central Office on Monday morning. Needless to say I was really, really stressed about having to go to a meeting on a MONDAY on my first day back from being sick! I got to the meeting and settled into my seat with all of my stuff. I decided to have a great mindset and just focus. It did help that the meeting was run by my favorite 95 Core Phonics instructor, Judie! As we got started, Judie acknowledged the crazy times were are in. I typically write down everything thing Judie says! Luckily, I captured this special nugget of truth from her: GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO LIVE IN THE WORLD WE ARE IN! As soon as I wrote this quote in my notebook, I knew it was something I needed to pass on to you! So, please read Judie's advice one more time-GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO LIVE IN THE WORLD WE ARE IN!
I love words and phrases and quotes. I have always believed in the power of words. When I was in the classroom I would plan out the exact language I wanted to use with my students. I wanted to be clear and explicit. The words we read, the images we look at and the media we expose ourselves to all become part of who we are. If you've looked around my office, hopefully you've noticed that I am surrounded by words, phrases and quotes that I have intentionally selected to inspire me and hopefully to inspire others too. It's like the equivalent of "you are what you eat". That's why choosing a ONE WORD each calendar year has been something I've been doing for a long time.
I've had a really rough start to this year and I need those words, phrases and quotes now more than ever. As I was laying in bed, sick with COVID at midnight on January 1st, I couldn't help but think, "what's my ONE WORD?" And, my next thought was, "I can't do this, I can't pick a word this year." Thankfully, after a few days the word came to me though, it's like I just couldn't escape it. My word for 2022 is HEALTH. I want to focus on all aspects of health this year: Healthy relationships Mental health Healthy eating Exercise Healthy work/life balance I am not doing so well with this ONE WORD right now, I'm so glad I have the rest of the year to work on it. (I did just order over $100 of vitamins though!) I hope you have had time to reflect as the calendar turns from 2021 to 2022. I hope you give yourself the time to find the right word for you! And be sure to share it with others. Remember, words are powerful and can take on a life of their own. Give your ONE WORD power by putting it out into the universe. Congratulations! You did it....well almost. One more day, can you believe it? This time last year we were in the midst of switching between eLearning and hybrid. We were stressed, unvaccinated and unsure of what the future would hold. And now, things are looking a little brighter! Honestly, I never in a million years would have imagined that we'd still be wearing masks and talking about COVID 365 days from then, but here we are! And, it's safe to say that WE DID IT! We have returned to a semi-normal school year, our kids are happy and learning! Yes, we're stressed, yes we're overwhelmed and yes we're exhausted, but we have so much to celebrate! We've come a LONG way!
So....CONGRATULATIONS! YOU DID IT! Please be sure to unplug and unwind over winter break. You deserve it. You're the WORLD'S BEST STAFF! I had another blog post planned for today, but then yesterday....
I was walking down the hallway on a mission as usual and this happened: A cute little K kiddo stopped me in the hall and said, "Mrs. Prati are you going to make an announcement so I can go out and eat the snow." I said, "What? You mean you want to go out and eat snow now?" She said, "Yes! Or, at recess!" I said, "Well, I'm not going to encourage the eating of snow but if you decide to do it, just don't eat the yellow snow!" She stopped for a minute and I could tell she was thinking and then she said, "Wait, snow is white! NOT YELLOW!.....Oh....wait....but if a dog pees in it, then it's yellow! But, we don't have dogs here!" Then she stopped for a minute again and said, "WAIT! Yes we do!" (she remembered Theo!) Oh how I love elementary school! Thank you all for your preparation for today!
Dave, Sharee, Mark, Molly, Herb and Kori had only positive things to say about JW. I'd like, however, to apologize if you were on the schedule and visitors did not come to your room. They ended up kind of wandering around without following the plan. Here is some of the feedback from the team: -There is A LOT of learning going on! -Common language is apparent throughout the building -R Factor language is happening all over the building -Kids LOVE going to school here -RTI is the best around -In many schools they can easily pinpoint one things over others that the school is really great at, but here it is everything -David Stewart said, "You have to have a lot of energy to work here." -So much intentionality AS ALWAYS, I AM SO PROUD TO BE PART OF THIS AMAZING STAFF. I know it's been a hard year, but please take a minute to give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done. |
Archives
May 2023
Categories |