Starting my tenth year as an administrator, I still love the question I inevitably hear over and over in the summer, "Are you ready to go back to school?" I usually explain that I'm a "regular joe (or jill)" just like everyone else in the work world, with 20 vacation days per year. The community members who ask the question never seem to know how to respond to that answer and I realize it's because they're thinking, "what the heck does she do all summer?"
We've actually had a tremendous summer at GCS, with three summer forums that included curriculum design for all core content teachers (encore teachers will begin in July 2009) and planning and implementation of our new reading program. We also had Thoughtful Classroom sessions for administrators and teacher leaders as well as my own attendance as a learner at the school law conference and High School's New Face, a Western New York conference focused on 21st century skills. Most administrators I've known also take advantage of the summer to catch up on professional reading and for me, reading just for fun. It's all about our own learning in July and August and that's largely what revitalizes us to go from learner to teacher on September 3.
I'm thinking a lot about how we continue the energy and enthusiasm teachers committed to our school improvement efforts started this summer. I realize that means lots of support from me and the rest of our admin team. As leaders, we have to maintain our expectations because there's nothing worse than leaving teachers with the feeling that they started something in the summer that no one really cared about or looked at once they finished. We also have to offer on-going opportunities for teachers to work together and to take refresher classes after school or even just to say, "how was I supposed to do this again?" SUSTAINED initiatives aren't something we always do well in education and that honestly comes down to our responsibility and commitment as leaders. I'm also thinking about LIMITED initiatives as I'm very conscious that while I'm ready to move on to the next project, our K-8 math program, my teachers aren't even 30% through our current initiative implementations.
While everyone else is "back to school" today and lamenting the end of summer, it's just another work day for us, albeit much more interesting with our 1500 students and 150 teachers in the "house"! And it sure still looks like summer to me, I'm planning to maintain some of those summer time practices, like reading for fun and swimming. Yeah, I know, wish me luck on that one. But hey, it's the beginning of a new year, I'm as hopeful and optimistic as ever.
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