Three Important Words

Shortly after graduating from Holy Cross, I started teaching at St. Malachy School on Chicago's Near West Side.  Posted in the Teacher's Room was a Top Ten List of Important Words.  According to this list, the three most important words are "I am sorry."

I have never considered how important those words are until earlier this week.

During the Opening District In-Service this year, I wanted to start a new tradition: honoring the nominees and the winners of the University of Vermont Teacher of the Year Award.  Montpelier Public Schools ask colleagues to nominate fellow teachers they believe to be worthy of the award.  Then the Administrative Team reviews the list and selects two.

As part of a larger theme of Celebration, I planned to invite all the nominees to come forward, to be acknowledged by everyone in the District and to receive a certificate.  In preparation for this, I scoured my e-mail inbox to ensure that I had all the names of all the nominees reviewed by the Administrative Team this summer.  Confident that I did, I typed all the names into my Opening Day Remarks.

You can already tell where this is going... I missed one of the nominees.

One of the teachers from Main Street Middle School was nominated by a colleague and it slipped past me.  The individual teacher politely let me know shortly after my Opening Remarks that I failed to recognize this nomination.  Now I needed to repair this.

My plan was to slip quietly into this individual's classroom, present a nomination certificate, and apologize.  I was able to do this - in front of the entire sixth grade.

On Tuesday, September 11, the Sixth Grade at Main Street Middle School was commemorating the events of 2001 when I entered the building.  I listened to the speakers and then I was offered the Talking Stick.  I took that opportunity to share my own reflections of that morning eleven years ago but also to apologize to a worthy nominee of the University of Vermont Teacher of the Year.  With colleagues and students present, this teacher received the recognition that I failed to provide two weeks earlier.

Three Important Words: who needs to hear them from you this week?