How to grow a school?

I am so delighted to have summer, to have days of quiet and reflection. We traveled last week, to visit my parents in South Carolina, and my husband's extended family in Georgia. Each day, I took time to journal, something I think I do every day of my life, but I saw that there were many days in the hectic pace of this school year in which I did not. So, summer is a time for renewal, reconnecting - both with people and with thoughts.

I find myself reflecting about school and teaching. In this quiet of summer, I have a chance to look both backward and forward, and think about education in general. I am thinking a lot about how to sustain myself, how to keep my eye on the prize - our full vision of a great school.

I fell in love with this school from the first whispers I heard about it.
We have the best of intentions.

In each classroom,

• teaching is founded on students' interests;
• we strive to cultivate and instigate curiosity, inquiry, thirst for more knowledge; and
• students' ideas and voice are obvious and essential.

Our classrooms are joyful places.

As a staff,
we are constantly exploring new ideas,
reflecting on these, and
striving to work together and collaborate.

Perhaps my most favorite element of our school,
we are teaching beginning teachers how to do this.
Each seasoned "master teacher" works alongside a new Teaching Resident,
daring to teach on two levels - to the children, to the beginning teacher.

We are a demonstration school, meaning,
we seek to show all this in process...what it really looks like.
We want visitors to walk in and see this dynamic process in action.



This fall will be year three of our school.
I am still in love with this school, but I am less starry-eyed.

I hope we are done with its infancy, with its toddlerhood - the hectic, non-stop, oh my, we need to do this!, we forgot to do that!, all hands on deck!, we need it now! phase...

What do I mean?

When the school opened,
preschool through grade three, fall 2011,
that first year,
it was as if everyone did everything.
Everything was new, new, new. We were all constantly watching everything at once. Someone's metaphor - "We were building an airplane while flying it." The days were long and the year was, too. At year's end, I said to my husband "Wow! that was something!," to which he promptly replied, "And I don't ever want to go through it again." My supportive spouse was totally drained by the enormity of work and thought and time that went into this new school.


Reality check -
I teach preschool.
I teach three year olds.
It's meant to be joyful, for them and me.


How do you sustain a motivated staff?
What makes teaching doable and enjoyable?

Year two,
preschool through fourth grade, fall 2012,
we made considerable progress in defining roles and responsibilities,
in developing systems.
I set the personal goal of reclaiming my weekends - of observing Friday evening through Sunday afternoon as my personal time, my family time (I have yet to figure out how to avoid Sunday evening planning and preparations for the week ahead). I am really proud to say that I achieved this goal - made it a habit. But there was still enormous work and thought and time spent on the school. A typical day was to leave home at 7 am and return about 6 pm. My son Bryce told one of my friends, who had called one evening and found me not home, "I don't begin to worry about where Mom is until it is 7 pm; she is always working."


Reality check -
I teach preschool.
I teach three year olds.
It's meant to be joyful, for them and me.



How do you sustain a motivated staff?
What makes teaching doable and enjoyable?

I have no doubt, we will make even bigger strides this next year.

I hope we are done with this infancy and toddlerhood,
and now begin to "settle in"
to "growing" a school.

I love three year olds.
I'm confident I'm going to love this three year old school.