No Quit Attitude

Tomorrow I start a new school year as Assistant Principal at UT Elementary in Austin, TX.  I am excited and nervous for the new year.  The other day I was out running and thinking about the new school year and what kind of impact I hope to have on our students and teachers this year.  While I was running, I hit a stretch with a long uphill road (yes there are some small hills here in Texas).  After about 2 miles straight of running uphill, my legs were pounding and I decided to take a quick walking break.  After about 2 seconds I realized how upset I was with myself for stopping to walk.  I should have toughed it.  The pain wasn't that bad.  I needed to be more mentally tough and push through the pain.  This got me thinking about what it is that we are teaching students.  We work really hard to provide them with as much content knowledge as possible.  Are we equally preparing them with the stickwithitness necessary to be successful in college and beyond?  How are we giving them the skills and confidence necessary to be mentally tough and not give up when it starts to get hard?  I feel like this is something we can improve on as teachers.  How many times do we hear kids say they quit because things just got too hard?  I am excited this year that at UT Elementary, we have integrated Social and Emotional Learning into the curriculum.  This helps provide students with the social and emotional skills necessary to work through difficult situations and provide them with the confidence they need to be successful..  Hopefully we can start a paradigm shift where parents and teachers stop viewing education as simply stuffing kids minds with content knowledge and thinking about how we are building students into successful scholars who enjoy learning and can work through the difficulties that they will inevitably face.

I am writing this blog with the hope of inspiring teachers to rededicate themselves to their students and their schools.  I have found that in my few years in education, many teachers seem to be waiting for some program or intervention to come and save them.  In the culture of accountability, the pressures of that can be difficult for teachers to work under.  Many times as teachers look for the answers they think that if they just had a certain piece of equipment, or intervention, if the students could just have that program everything will be ok.  Some have even created movies about how students and parents are waiting for Superman.  They are waiting for someone to come and save them.  Who is that going to be?  Who are we waiting for?  There is only one person that can be the superhero in the school settings.  The teachers must step up and save their students.  They have the power.  They see them everyday.  They have the data on them.  They know how to motivate them.  They have to find what works with the kids.  No one is coming to the rescue.  Until we as educators realize that we have the power and that we are the only ones capable to changing the lives of our students, we will continue to see the lack of progress in public education.  I believe in public education.  I believe in teachers.  I know that they can work miracles if they put their minds to it.  I do not believe it requires a superhuman effort.  It just requires teachers committing themselves to their students and ensuring they will do what is best for kids. 

So please, will real superheroes please stand up?