Don't Overthink It...

-



This week I have decided to recycle an oldie but a goodie post and dedicate my blog to the game that I love and hate the most, golf!! Thanks to a recent outing with a colleague, I got my game into the best shape it's been in for years AND got this awesome idea for a blog post. While we spent the afternoon laughing, high-fiving for good shots, and talking to ourselves after poor shots, there was one constant about the game: Regardless of a good shot or bad shot, the mumbling was always, "Don't overthink it!" Almost everyone knows that sports, especially golf, are mentally grueling and the more you think while playing usually the worse the outcome. So why do we continue to overthink things? Is education any different right now in this time of uncertainty and change? Maybe, just maybe the adults don't always have the perfect answer because we overthink it, but collaboratively with our students, I know the right answers will be found. More than ever, our students have answers to what needs to be done differently in our schools to improve both their experience and student outcomes as well. Famous golfer Ben Hogan once said, "Golf is the hardest game in the world. There's no way you can ever get it. Just when you think you do, the game jumps up and puts you in your place." I find this to be a perfect analogy for our profession. The second we, as educators think we have everything figured out and become stagnant, is the second we have failed ourselves and our students. One thing we have all learned about life is that change is a given and currently in education change is becoming more and more the norm. So why do we resist change so much in our profession? After all, if our duty is to promote learning to our youth, why are so many educators turned off to the idea of learning new strategies and trying new lessons? While degrees and certifications may prove our intelligence or maybe they just prove persistency, they certainly do not make us omnipotent wizards of the classroom. Our craft is always changing and the only way to ensure success for all is to recognize this, accept it, and grow with it. If we don't overthink the change, then there won't be anything to fear. I leave you today with this quote from Bruce Crampton, "Golf is a COMPROMISE between what your EGO wants you to do, what EXPERIENCE tells you to do, and what your NERVES will let you do." I'm not certain that there could be a better correlation between the difficult task of being an educator. We must continue to want to grow and acknowledge our biases and understand that our beliefs are simply that, our beliefs. No one's beliefs are absolute and are a prescription for everyone in a community. It's time to compromise with our egos and experience and take the risk that our nerves are telling us to take. Our students deserve it and if we let them, they can lead the way!


Early Childhood Registration 

Registration for the 2022-2023 school year in the Early Childhood Program will be taking place from June 6 through June 10. For more information, including information on required documentation, please see our informational flyer here: https://app.peachjar.com/flyers/2274056/districts/32521.   

Congratulations Athletes

Congratulations to all of our Spring sports scholar-athletes and teams! The NYSPHSAA has released the list of scholar-athletes and teams for the Spring 2022 season. Our Scholar Teams for the Spring 2022 season include: Girls Varsity Golf coached by Dave Petrelli, Boys Varsity Golf coached by Peter Dalton, Girls Varsity Lacrosse coached by Kayla Smith, Girls Varsity Softball coached by Gerald Closinski, Boys Varsity Tennis coached by Larry Bevilacqua, and Boys Varsity Track and Field coached by Timothy Hoffman. In total, across all sports, we had 90 students achieve the Scholar-Athlete distinction. Individual awards are given to any student who has a cumulative GPA of 90% or higher; while team awards are given to teams that have 75% of the roster achieving a GPA of 90% or better. 

2022-2023 Immunization Requirements 

As you know, New York State has several requirements for school admission. These requirements are not COVID related and are the general requirements for schools in New York State. The link below will take you to the State Education Department website that outlines the required vaccinations. Please speak to your school nurse or family physician if you have any questions regarding any requirements. 

School Vaccine Requirements

Parent Information Regarding School Vaccines


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