First, a shout out to Norm Bossio and his book, How to Stay Motivated on the Deck of the Titanic.  Norm spoke to us during a week long Master’s program retreat four years ago, and my friend purchased the book for me.  As you can imagine, it’s a book about keeping positive when everything around you is going up (or down) in smoke!

 

As I look around our school, our elementary in particular, I see a lot of smoke.  We aren’t happy, we are frustrated, and we are tired.  Our school day has been added to, most teachers have close to double the work load (I got to loop and have a much smaller class).  We’ve purchased a new math series and received A day of training and are struggling seeing the alignment of core standards with our current series.  To top it all all, our volume of email is up tremendously because we don’t have the face to face time as a staff to see, talk, or make connections with each other.

 

Goodness.

 

Yes, in the midst of all this, I see smiling.  I see laughter.  I see caring.  What? How can this be? We are like the Whos down in Whoville, not crying because our roast beast is gone, but celebrating the fact we can do a job that we love with a passion.  Not saying that the Grinch hasn’t made a visit or two, but for all the crap that’s been thrown at us over the last year (and that will be thrown over this year of changes), this staff shows a resiliency that not many outside of our building understands.  If we are onboard the Titanic, we are going down in blaze of glory, but I don’t think our staff would allow this.  I think we’d be underwater, patching, emptying buckets, and getting the dang ship righted!

 

I love what I do and I do what I love, but I love with whom I work as well.  We will survive and come out of this better then ever.