Day One - #Nailedit

We had our first day as a full staff today.  It was great to begin to see the staff in it's entirety, though I'm sure I learned a bajillion names today which I will never remember.  We began with a delicious breakfast of pizza, fruit, muffins and yogurt cups.  Most of the newbies stuck to each other - which is expected I suppose - and it's only the first day.  Give us a break :)

The pizzas and breakfast spread!

Panorama of the staff enjoying breakfast

Opening slide of the Head of School's presentation

The Head of School welcoming all staff

It's so interesting to me to be in the situation I'm in right now.  It's been two school years since I have been in a building, and eight years since I taught in Hungary.  It has been quite a while since I was a "newbie" in a building as I was in Burnsville for 13 years.  Admittedly I was a newbie in Hungary, but since everything was in Hungarian, I had no idea what was going on so I always kind of functioned in a cloud.  Here, it's as if we are an independent school in the states, but when you leave everything around you is in Polish.  Don't get me wrong, there are Polish faculty, staff and students, but for all intents and purposes, things are status quo - in terms of schools - here. 

There was a welcome breakfast - with different offerings than I remember in my last district, but still the same.  People catching up, asking about their summer vacation with perhaps slightly different answers- "did you go anywhere? Oh, Greece, huh?  How was that?"  People groggy from the first alarm since the summer began, but their excitement to return and get going again is palpable in the room of staff.  PE teachers and chemistry teachers look like PE and chemistry teachers the world over.  We gathered in the theater (no food or drink allowed) and kicked off with a welcome from the Head of School.  Status Quo.  Until John (Head of School) started talking.  Today, as at the newbie welcome, he gave us permission to fail.  He recanted that there were great things which happened last school year, and did not dodge the topic of shortcomings of the last year.  He has been here three weeks after a somewhat mysterious end to the last Head of School's tenure.  

Regardless of what went down last year, he convinced us that we are all in this together.  He stressed that ALL students are OUR students, and that we need to connect behind our mission and values as we move into a brand new year.  He also included in his talk an image that I posted on my Facebook page earlier this week:

                                            

"It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do: we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do" ~Steve Jobs 

Many of us "newbies" agreed to come to this school based on conversations we had with the former head of school.  I will say though, that this guy, who is only two weeks more veteran to me, has managed to say the right things, and convince me that there is something special happening here at ASW.  As for right now, I like his approach - he identified himself as a 'servant leader' and one who was here to be involved and make ASW the best it could possibly be.  It was a great start to the day.  

We had some other smaller department and team meetings, but I wanted to share about the Middle School/ High School meeting we had.  As a staff, we are separate in terms of elementary, middle and high school.  The principal for the middle school is the same guy as the high school however, so there will be some joint meetings to deliver information and things of the nature.  We met the vice principals and did some quick info stuff.  Then he had us write on a piece of paper, one thing that a teacher did for us as a student that we remember.  Once we had our statements written, we 'chose our method of delivery' (some were crumpled into balls, I folded mine into a weak as heck airplane) and we threw them.  We were tasked to read at least three people's statements - re-crumpling and re throwing in between statements.  He managed not only to get us up and moving, but had us partake in a quick, meaningful reflection, and allowed us to read about the small things other teachers did to help students.  Some I read included information about supporting students, a smile after a tough day from a teacher, a note home about something small.  One stuck out to me that talked about how a teacher held her hand as she puked on the stairs of the school after a play she was in.  While it seems a bit trivial to participate in an activity like this, it allowed us to stop and remember that the small things matter.  Truly.  Each and every day we can do something small to make a difference - teacher or not.  

So while the day seemed status quo on a lot of levels, I am pleased to be part of a team who believes in their teachers, in their students, and in the power of each and every person in the room to contribute to the betterment of the lives of others.  Cheers to a new year!