Seek to Understand...

-
I often wonder as I am observing teachers, or students, or people watching at the mall, "What does a snap shot observation/evaluation of this individual/situation really mean?" Is there ANY value in a one time observation? The public education system has been built on evaluations and meeting criteria. Those of us that have spent our lives in education and dedicated ourselves to helping our societies improve make judgments about situations and people daily. But is that fair? Does achieving a '65' on a single exam really tell us anything about whether or not a student is prepared for the next challenge? Or walking into a classroom to observe a teacher in action for 40 minutes once a semester, are we really able to determine if the teacher is productive or not?

Many would say no, and I would as well at times. But, I believe that if we ask the right questions following an evaluation, then a 1 time snap shot can prove valuable. Instead of damning an individual or making a negative judgement about someone/something based on a quick encounter, have a conversation with the person to determine what was really happening. Communication is the key to all success within an institution. I love that quote, "Seek first to understand and then to be understood." Often times, we always think the negative about everything as opposed to seeking to understand the event/individual. Our evaluation systems can be VERY effective if we learn to communicate, ask questions, and genuinely want to improve our educational environment. We owe to our students and their futures to teach them how to communicate and accept constructive feedback. So, next time you find yourself making a judgement about someone or something you don't understand or don't know about, seek first to understand WHY the situation is the way it is, before developing your opinion.

Black Knight Kudos ...

Thank you to all of our community members who participated in this past weekend's American Heart Association walk at RFA!!

Congratulations to all of our winter season athletes and teams for all of their accomplishments. Thank you for representing RFA well!!

"PAIR"ents Partnership ...

Welcome to the newest section of my blog. Based on feedback from our community, the parents would like to be more informed about our building and their children, who blames them!! So, moving forward I will be incorporating some info here for our "pair"ents as I am coining this partnership. If you are a parent of an RFA student and have specific requests of things that would help parents collaborate with the high school, please send me a message or call. Building a strong school to home network is a leading indicator in the success of students at all ages, not just elementary school. Increasing our lines of communication and decreasing the barriers to student achievement is vital. We all have the same goal for our children, let's work together to achieve this goal!! 


This Week at RFA...

2/22 - Heat of Fusion
2/23 - Boys and Girls (V) Bowling Sectionals at Fulton
2/23 - Heat of Fusion
2/23 - District Attendance Committee
2/23 - RFA Discipline and Attendance Meeting
2/23 - 8th Grade Parent Night at RFA
2/24 - PSAT Administration
2/24 - DTSDE State Review
2/24 - Heat of Fusion
2/25 - DTSDE State Review
2/25 - Heat of Fusion
2/26 - DTSDE State Review
2/26 - Heat of Fusion
2/26 - Mr. RFA Pageant
2/27 - VEX Robotics Competition at Oswego
2/27 - Winterguard Competition at Mohonasen

Worth the Read...

Take a Moment to Self Reflect and Grow...

During the coming weeks, take the opportunity to ask questions of others to help grow your knowledge of them and the situation you find yourself in. Before you trust the 'rumor' you hear or make a judgement about something you don't have an understanding of, seek to understand. You will find that more often than not we are missing vital information related to our circumstances. Having the right information allows us to have better dialogue to move things in the right direction.

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