Each year at Westwood, our faculty and staff teach like their hair is on fire. There is this burning professionalism to help every student, to go beyond our wildest dreams in teaching every child so that they learn, and to work with each other to increase the synergy of our team to reach higher heights.
This year has been the best year yet. The faculty constantly challenges me to be more; and I do the same for them. It is only under collegial conditions of working with accountability to ourselves, to our students, to our profession that we are able to do more and be more.
School improvement is a lot like quitting smoking. Folks who actually quit smoking (like me) have to try and try and try again until finally the quitting sticks. The same is true about school improvement; there are a lot of false starts, but if you keep working at it, you will get there.
Each year, I have tried to do a book study with the faculty. I hated it, they hated it, we hated it. We would read a chapter or two and then kind of drop it because we were just too caught up in other things that were more pressing. This year, we pushed through the pain. I had each grade level take a chapter and present it at a faculty meeting; and I challenged each team to really go all out. It was so much better than me dryly dragging everyone through. Now, it wasn't the most popular thing I have ever implemented. No one wanted to do it; and then suddenly it clicked. Not only did we learn the information in the book (McEwan's Teach Them All to Read), but we learned all kinds of great small group learning strategies (Sandy Futrell got us going with ideas from Ban Those Bird Units). I am proud (finally) that we got book studies going. But, we just had to keep trying until we got there.
But, the thing that I have to really emphasize here is that our faculty and staff don't resist everything (even though they may not be crazy about every step we take), aren't constantly misdirecting their energies by fighting me and calling the union over petty nothing issues. Instead, they work to make our school great. They accept leadership from me and each other; and they make us all proud with their accomplishments.
As the school year ends, I just want to take a moment to salute the HIPPEST faculty and staff in America. My pride in your devotion and my affection for each of you makes my professional life a blessing beyond my deserving.
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