I spoke to one of our parents on the phone yesterday and she was so complimentary of our staff and everything we’ve done for our students this year. At one point she said, “I bet you guys are counting down the days for this school year to be over!”
I explained to her that instead of counting down the days, I feel like I am counting how many I have left! I shared with her how we just have SO MUCH left to do because our building is undergoing a renovation this summer and we have to pack up every single item…. In addition to everything we normally have to do to close out a school year! So I shared, I am counting up the days, minutes, hours… NOT counting down!!!
I feel the same is true for the time we have left with our students. Especially this year, more than any year before, we have been tasked with trying to close the gaps of learning for our students. We were charged by district, state, and federal leaders to not only grow our students to learn this year’s curriculum, but also to ensure that they learned anything they may have missed due to everyone staying at home due to Covid last Spring. When thinking about the weight of this expectation, again, I don’t want to count down the days… I want to count up all the time we have left and how we can best use it for the benefit of our students.
So, instead of looking at the End-of-Year Checklist, and all the packing up we still have to do, and all the regular end-of-year tasks like grading and awards, and pink and blue cards… I could go on… instead of looking at all of that and getting incredibly overwhelmed by how much there still is left to do… (ahem… I may be speaking to myself here…) INSTEAD, look at the time that is left and how much we CAN and WILL accomplish. Look at the class time and WIN time and Closing the Gaps time that you can continue to pull small groups and differentiate for students and make a difference in their learning and growth. Let’s help each other as we plan for and look over all the upcoming deadlines to also see the time and the opportunities that still remain.
Yes, there is much to do. But it is not yet time to count down to summer. It is time to make the day, hours, and minutes COUNT so that we can accomplish everything we need to for our to-do lists, our building renovation, and most importantly, for our STUDENTS!
Let’s finish strong, Redhawk Staff!
Written by Meredith Akers, Principal
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