Episode Details

Last week was the first time (except for a rare Christmas holiday) that I have not shared a blog post or podcast episode update in almost five years.

At first, I thought it was because I’ve been so busy. Last weekend I flew to Florida for my nephew’s wedding. Then on Monday, I flew from there to Washington, D.C. for a national meeting. When I was back home late Wednesday night in Oklahoma, I had one day in my office on Thursday before traveling to a university on Friday to sit on a panel discussion for education interns.

Throughout my flights and driving, I kept rummaging through my mind for what I wanted to share next. I have some interviews scheduled but not recorded. So maybe I should talk about takeaways from my advocacy visits. Or maybe I could share about common struggles I see in education students trying to find their first school positions? I just finished listening to the audiobook No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodman. Perhaps I should share leadership lessons from the remarkable lives of Franklin and Eleonore Roosevelt.

But frankly, I didn’t feel inspired to write about any of that. And I think I may have discovered why. For one, I had some lagging doubts: What if what I have to share isn’t really that valuable? What will people think?  In fact, I found myself becoming more and more concerned about the process of posting and my self-imposed deadlines for posting something, and my concern of not having something meaningful to say. The result? I just decided to not share.

Why am I telling you this? 

Why I Blog and Podcast

Let me back up a few years. Whenever I began blogging in 2012, I had one goal: to write a weekly reflection on something I was learning that might also help others in their own lives and leadership. When I turned that weekly content into podcast episodes three years ago, I had the same idea. From the beginning, my desire has been to capture the stories of school leadership and apply lessons from the stories. 

Stories are the ways we rehearse, interpret and understand the meaning of our lives. Storytelling is an act of metacognition. For instance, I could talk to you about the importance of being a good listener. However, a better idea may be to tell you the story of Kristin: As an 8^thgrader, she had lost both her parents in one year, moved into a foster home, and came to high school the following year having failed every class the previous year.

When we surrounded her with a mentor team, including a caring teacher an older student, she found an accountability group who followed her grades and provided feedback. Although Kristin resisted help at every turn, eventually she began to listen and pass her classes. But she still struggled. One day, when she skipped school, I brought her back to my office and assigned her to the in-school placement room.

She wasn’t happy about it, but she finished her work so quickly, she soon sent me a note that said, “I’m done. Now what?” I laughed at her ability to sa