It has been too long since I have written. It has been too long since we've seen our kids. We are going on week 6 out of school and eLearning. Our district was preparing to implement eLearning days during inclement weather for the next school year. All of a sudden, we are doing it four days a week, teaching and learning in our homes, with computers, as best as we all can. Although we cannot be with each other, we can still celebrate our kids, and today I was able to do that with a parent.
Rewind to three years ago when I entered the district as a principal. You quickly learn as much as you can about the students in your building, and even quicker, you learn about kids you will work with daily. Some kids, at different times in their lives, require different types of attention from the school staff. This is where my involvement in his story begins. I met a young student who needed additional supports throughout his day. He had a hard time focusing and completing basic requests, given by the teacher. Often, the class would be working in one part of the room, and he'd be in another part of the room, not participating. This particular school year went on, with not much change, as we tried to help him be more successful with different supports.
The next year began with very little change. We began to wrap our arms around this student with supports in the classroom, in resource classrooms, in communication with parents, and with our mentor program. We would see little glimpses of success, but not very often. One thing about being the leader of a building that is beneficial, is knowing kids from year to year and being able to build the relationship. For more kids than we realize, having a new teacher each year is a hardship, because they have to start building a relationship that relies on trust and understanding every single year. For me, I was able to connect with this student and pick up where we left off the prior year. Together as a staff, we built on those little successes and tried to understand our student as best as we could, including what he needed academically, emotionally and socially.
Fast forward to today. It's April, and we are supposed to say goodbye to our 4th graders in a few weeks. We cannot see them, hug them, high five them, and tell them how proud we are of them (in person). This kid has come so far! He shares his emotions and tells us when he's overwhelmed. He wants to be at school, he told mom about staff members he misses. This is amazing. This is so different from the kid we knew three years ago.
On a conference call with mom, before we hung up, I had to share. (Mind you, I've had a ton of conversations with mom in person and on the phone over the last three years. Many of the conversations involved sharing info with mom that she was not excited about. We have had a couple of great phone calls to brag about him to mom this year, which he loved.) I laid it out for mom and said, "I hate that I can't hug him. I hate that I can't say goodbye to him. I hate that I can't tell him how amazing of a school year he had and how proud I am of him. Tell him I will find him at the Middle School in the fall."
Invest in your kids, they are the best investment you'll ever make.
