Morale? Huh...

-
One of the prevailing trends in education is to hear that morale is low in our schools. Teachers' morale is low, students are negative about their school experience, and parents are just frustrated with the whole ball of wax. Walk into almost any school and ask the administration this question,  "what's the must important thing to fix in your school currently?" Almost universally you will get the cliche answer of,  "morale."

Is that truly the case though? I will admit that I'm one of those administrators who thought morale was low and that's the solution to all of our problems, but I'm not sure that's true. I have struggled to find a teacher not wanting to teach kids to the best of their ability. If morale was low, wouldn't we expect to see people "mailing it in." Teachers and staff members routinely come to work every day smiling and ready to make a difference. Even in the face of disruptive students and rude mannerisms by our kids, the adults in our schools still show up every day ready to make a difference. So I pose the question, is morale the problem or is the problem really the inability of leadership to make a difference? Being a leader that's kind of a loaded question, but it's the truth. It's time that we, as leaders, step up and make a difference for our communities. Morale is fine, but stress is not. By taking care of our school communities and helping our staff's by reducing stress, not only will morale be higher than ever but our adults may just become the super heroes that we hope the can be.

Black Knight Kudos ...

A giant Black Knight thank you to all of the veterans in our community, past and present, who have sacrificed for our way of life. Happy Veteran's Day!!

Congratulations to our new National Honor Society inductees. 65 students in all have joined the RFA chapter this year.

Congratulations to our athletes who participated in the girls cross-country, boys cross-country, and girls swimming Sectional competitions this past weekend.

This Week at RFA...

11/10 - Rotary Interact Club Polio Vaccine Fundraiser (lunches)
11/10 - Field Trip to Oneida Community House
11/10 - Field Trip to MWP Institute
11/11 - VETERAN'S DAY, No School
11/12 - Sophomore Seminar on Veterinary Science
11/12 - Guest Speaker Andrew Derminio (Knight Times/Journalism)
11/12 - Rotary Interact Club Polio Vaccine Fundraiser (lunches)
11/12 - Math Competition Field Trip to MVCC
11/12 - DASA Task Force Meeting
11/13 - End of Marking Period 1
11/13 - Rotary Interact Club Polio Vaccine Fundraiser (lunches)
11/13 - Guidance Field Trip to MVCC
11/13 - Cap and Gown Ordering During Lunches
11/14 - Vex Robotics Competition at Liverpool H.S.
ONGOING - STASS Canned Food Drive
ONGOING - Sophomore Class Turkey Collection

Worth the Read...

Take a Moment to Self Reflect and Grow...

When was the last time you went out of your way to help a colleague that may have been having a bad day, simply because it was the right human thing to do? Take a moment and this week and try to do something nice for a colleague. Maybe introduce yourself to that person you never met even though you've worked together for 10 years, maybe just compliment someone on their hair or smile. We all have personal baggage that other's don't carry, supporting each other reduces our stress!!

Popular posts from this blog

It Takes A Village...

-
Image
 We all know the old phrase, "it takes a village to raise a child." One can reflect on the phrase and find a few different ways to interpret its meaning, however, it cannot be argued that when groups of people work together to help their children grow, success is more likely. To me, I view this phrase as referencing that there is someone within every community that a child can connect with to help them feel a part of their school and/or community. It may not be their classroom teacher or their principal. It may be a bus driver, a coach, a teaching assistant, secretary, custodian, food service worker, music teacher, art teacher, computer specialist, monitor, etc. The list can go on and on. Why mention this? Well, currently, one of the largest and most important educational research projects in our nation's history is occurring with some of the leading educational experts researching what education needs to be by the year 2025. Education 2025 is producing information that m...
Read more

When One Door Opens, Many More Follow...

-
Image
One of the hardest things to do in life is to deal with change. There is that old saying, "When one door closes, another door opens." I wonder though, why does a door have to close for another to open. Why can't many doors open when someone decides to go through a new door? I am about to embark on a new professional journey in the coming weeks and I refuse to think that the building that I have helped to lead over the past 3 years is going to be a closed door. Instead, I can think of thousands of opportunities that have been opened because of my decision to walk through a new door. I think of all of the people that have touched my life (students, staff, and parents) and I honestly don't see why a door has to close. Instead of that thinking, I choose to think that thousands of doors are opened now with all of the amazing people that I have had the opportunity to lead. The lessons that have been learned, the friendships that have developed, and the opportunities tha...
Read more

I Had A Dream...

-
Image
Once upon a time, when we all began our careers or started a new position/school, we had dreams. Dreams of what we wanted to accomplish, dreams we wanted to see our students accomplish, dreams we wanted to see our school communities achieve. Throughout my travels though, I have seen more adults tell students that should lower their expectations and downsize their dreams. Unfortunately, I would say that the ratio of adults encouraging students and adults discouraging students is close to 1:1 in my career. I ask, would you be where you are today without someone throughout your educational life encouraging you to pursue your dreams? As with many things in our schools, we need to focus on the positives that are happening and capitalize on them. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream for our country, and while his dream was related to equal rights and oppression, his intended message of having a dream and working tirelessly to achieve it can be applied universally in society. Recently, ...
Read more