One Family @ School

When I take a look at the world and how it operates, I see a lot of animosity. But in reality, life is not supposed to be about being at the top, getting even with the person who you think wronged you and the thinking that, “my idea is better than yours” – it’s about people.
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It’s about doing what is right for everyone.

When you look specifically at education, it is not about everyone being separate. It’s not about the students, teachers, parents, special education staff, administration and any other employee on staff all being individual pieces of the school. It’s about everyone coming together to be one unit – one family if you will - doing what is best for kids.
 
Lately I have been thinking back to the IMMOOC chats a lot. One conversation that sticks out in my mind is from a chat with Dr. Tony Sinanis and Joe Sanfelippo. During the chat, they talked about getting to know everyone in their district/building. As an administrator, Joe (I believe) said, that he took the time to see different aspects of his school and got to know everyone from the custodian to the child learning in the classroom. That concept speaks volumes to me.
 
When you take the time to get to know the people you are working with or the ones that are around you….you build relationships. Through those relationships comes trust. Through trust, bridges are built for communication. Through the communication comes a conversation(s) about building a solid school for our kids and a mindset of togetherness. As a building you can now focus on and what WE can do differently for kids.
 
I’ve been in the positions where it doesn’t feel as if the building is a unit – but separate sections doing what they want. Nothing productive comes from that environment. In a school, we are a community and by working together, more can happen than we originally thought possible.
 
No person is an island.
 
It takes all of us working together to do what we can for kids.