It may not be your fault...

It may not be our fault but it is our responsibility.

I have been thinking about the many tragedies that have occurred lately, with Las Vegas being the most recent one and I am heart broken.  Author Mo Willems' tweet had a sad and significant impact on me;

It is easy to feel helpless with these continued senseless acts of terror and violence. When these events occur I try to listen and hear everything I can. Where was the glitch? What went wrong? How can we prevent this in the future?  Unfortunately, no answer comes.

What I know is that there is never one reason, one organization, or one law that are at fault. And while we may not be able to cleanly lay blame or fault, that does not excuse us from our responsibilities. Because it takes just ONE to make a positive impact on a life. 

As leaders in our classrooms, leaders in our school, and leaders in our community, we play a massive role in the development of our future generations. Yes, a daunting task - but one as educators we embrace each day we enter our schools. It is our responsibility as educators to build the relationship bridge for these little humans we have the honor of working with every day.

It is our responsibility to teach, model, and reinforce what we hope our communities will look like and sound like in the future.

It is our responsibility to model what caring and loving adults do.

It is our responsibility to connect with our kids, with our parents, and with our wider community to build a support network for our children.

Our work has ripple effects, and if we want to make a change in the world, we must start within our four walls, cultivating our future generations.

it's about the HOW...

I received a great reminder this weekend of the impact we have on our students.  My kindergarten daughter wanted to play school, she was the teacher.  We couldn't play right away, as she spent a long block of time getting prepped and ready (very true to life, right?)  

Once we went into play, she had set up the materials at our “desks” and had even hand-made our Fundations papers.  

I watched her play the role of her teacher (whom she adores!) and could see and hear her mimic her teacher’s inflection, catch phrases, and even her physical movements. How she called on her "students," her nonverbal strategies for getting our attention, and even her positive feedback about our work (and coaching when we made a mistake!)

It was a powerful example that students are not only focused on what we say but, even more so, how we talk with them.  This was a wonderful reminder to me as I get ready for a new week – and I share this challenge with you.  If the students you work with were playing school, what sound bites do you want them to pull from you?  How do you hope they say it?  Go out and model it and be great for kids!

#KidsDeserveIt #MomsAsPrincipals #PrincipalsInAction