Friday Flyer - June 24, 2022

 

I am imagining you are feeling like you ran
several marathons. I think you are all winners!
Congratulations for making it through the finish line.

I have shared this graph with in the past - it is a graph of a first year teacher's attitudes toward teaching in their first year. I have often observed that first year leaders also experience this roller coaster, and as we become more experienced, we continue to experience it, but the peaks and valleys are less extreme. 

I also imagine the "disillusionment" phase was probably much longer this past year and as a result rejuvenation will also take more time. Please, please disconnect so you find joy in anticipation of starting a new year in September.

Gratitude

It has been my honor to lead in Boston these past five years and to have been school superintendent of Region 6, in East Boston, and other schools in the city. I'm also grateful to you all for your patience these past two years - first when the task force work was underway, and this year with the addition of Mission Hill. I appreciate that regardless of the noise, you continued to persevere and do the right thing for students.

Best of Luck!

I wish the best to Mike, who is moving on to the Guild to work with Karen McCarthy and Sean Brooks to focus on mathematics coaching (and all the things Karen will be able to ask him to do - 😂😂😂 - don't get me wrong, I love Karen). To Marvin, thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking on closing the Timilty. He accomplished the three things I asked of him - thank you! I marveled at his tenacity, commitment and creativity. Marvin is heading to Milton Academy in a newly created role that will allow him to continue to use his creativity and logical mathematics mind to build something great.

Transitions

Each of you remaining will have a new supervisor next year, and yes, there will be a transition, but I know you will be fine because of the strong systems and structures you have in place and because you are focused on improving outcomes and closing opportunity gaps for multilingual learners, students with disabilities, and our beautiful full-of-genius black and brown children. As a leader, you are their advocate; you can change the trajectories of children's lives.

I trust that next year will be more predictable cadence that will allow you to get traction on the instructional plans you have in place. Be patient with the new region structure while the support is deployed; it will take time for everyone to adjust to working together. Remember that everyone has the best intentions and when that doesn't seem so, ask questions. 

Summer

I will continue to be available over the summer and will share my personal number and email prior to my retirement date when I turn in my laptop and phone. 

Friday Flyer

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