Mrs. Cromer: Leading & Learning

The same conversation plays out numerous times per day, with a very predictable script: “Hi! How are you?” “Doing well, just busy, how are you doing?” “I understand, I’m very busy over here too.” It’s like there is an underground competition to show that we are the busiest, most overworked professional within our spheres.   “I worked all weekend on (insert project here).” “I can’t meet today, I’m just too busy with (insert another project here).” Guess what? WE’RE ALL BUSY. It may look different for each of us, but we are all overwhelmed with to-do lists that are a mile long. Why do we feel the need to showcase that we are working ourselves to exhaustion? It's as if we have to defend the use of our time. I am a big believer that our words shape our mindset and demonstrate our belief system.  I don't want to believe in the system of "busy."  My work should speak for itself without me having to explain all of my tasks to everyon...

This past school year I had the opportunity to return to the classroom.  Our division wanted to open up a pathway for students interested in becoming educators, but we did not have a teacher available to teach the Teachers for Tomorrow course.  Since I still considered myself a teacher and had been missing the daily interaction with students since moving to the central office level, I eagerly volunteered to take on this new course. I immediately remembered the joy that comes from planning engaging learning opportunities and building relationships with students as well as how quickly one can accumulate a stack of papers to grade. This experience had an enormous impact on me as an educational leader so I wanted to share some reasons why I believe every school leader should get back in the saddle:  Be an instructional model How best to model the instructional expectations you expect from faculty?  Walk the walk.   There have been several teach...