LEADING THROUGH LISTENING

As the conference season winds down this weekend (for some reason the major organizations in NY like to do their conferences within weeks of each other in September and October every year), I find myself wondering every year why the most used excuse for stalling something new is, "the kids can't do that" or "the kids can't handle that." And it's not teachers that carry the burden of this excuse. It is administrators, parents, vendors, KIDS, and teachers; all together. Through many workshops and discussions at these events, you hear the excuse repeatedly from people questioning presenters on their progressive ideas. But what if we started everything new with "maybe they can." I could argue that most any progressive classroom that I have walked into during my entire educational career, the teacher often says, "I took a chance." I bring this up because how we know education and deliver education is on the cusp of a major overall. Not...

Congratulations to the Rome Free Academy Girl's Cross Country, Girl's Swimming, and Boy's Cross Country teams for bringing home their League Championships this weekend!! With the fall sports season winding down, RFA athletics are bringing a strong presence into the playoffs. Each of the three teams brought home their Championship in dramatic fashion this weekend and are poised to continue their run into Section 3 competition in the coming weeks. All three of these sports bring impressive championships because they require both a team concept, but also have the element of individual talents and successes that are needed from many for the team to succeed. Congrats to all of our athletes for making the Rome community proud. Beyond these three teams, our boy's soccer team fought valiantly in a 1-0 overtime loss to top seed Baldwinsville in the second round of sectional play while the girl's soccer team was defeated by CNS in the first round of their competition. The...

October is a month where many different organizations and causes utilize as their 'awareness' month. Among them are breast cancer, down syndrome, dyslexia, mental health, and bullying prevention; just to name a few. Obviously this list is not exhaustive, but it's meant to highlight that at any given point in time there are people in our lives that are dealing with something where we can lend a hand of support. We shouldn't need awareness months, or days, or weeks to take time out to check on someone who is working through something or lend support. October is perhaps the month that has the most awareness associated with it, so I felt the need to bring this more to the forefront. You've all heard the phrase, "Everyone knows someone who has been affected by cancer in their lives," by now. The reality is, we all know someone close to us that is dealing with all of these things. The challenge is that many of the things that people deal with are not as noti...

Have you ever found yourself in a situation or viewing something where you feel like saying,"Why, just why?" Unfortunately, I find myself in this situation almost on a daily basis as I attempt to figure out what some individuals are thinking as I work through various issues. Whether it be a student resorting to physical violence to try and solve something, or an adult trying to cut corners in an attempt to hide something or get their way, or children and adults using language to intentionally hurt someone because they know they are being offensive. The frequency at which people say, "I don't care" when being questioned about an inappropriate action is saddening. And it's not just kids, it's all of us. There is a general lack of responsibility and duty to our tasks/jobs that has developed in our society. As I write this, ironically a lead story on Sportscenter today is about two NBA athletes who decided to mix it up physically on the court and then up...