What's Next?

As we move further and further into spring, thoughts are turning toward an essential question in education: "What's Next?" How do we take next steps? What should they look like? How ambitious should we be as we think about next year and the year after that? 

There are many things to consider as we look to the future. We must assess the capacity of our students and the capacity of our adults. We need to gauge our areas of strength and weakness from a system perspective, as well as individually throughout our community. We need to strike the right balance, aiming high enough to make progress but not in a way that asks anyone to take on too much. 

This brings me back to a familiar mantra I've held in education for the past twenty-six years: Our work is about relationships. It's not more complicated than that. If we put relationships first, we will be able to achieve great things together on behalf of our students and their families. 

I was meeting with a teacher this week who was interested in another open position in our school. Something they said struck me as our time together progressed. "I make sure that I say at least four positive things about one of my students before I redirect them publicly." Stop for a moment and listen to the power of that statement. Four positive things about one student before redirecting them publicly. I will admit that I rarely say four positive things about my own children before redirecting them in our house! I am truly in awe of this person's commitment to relationships in the classroom. 

Our students come to us with so many invisible needs on their shoulders. Bethany Hill captured it best with this graphic from Edutopia: 

If we can notice them, give them four positive messages before we redirect them publicly, and love them, we are making classrooms safe places. If classrooms are safe places where all students feel welcomed and included, then our students can learn to their potential. If our students are learning to their potential, then we are doing the real work of education. Our work is about so much more than content; we have little humans in our professional world, surrounded by so many claims of what is true and good. We must help them navigate this in a way that honors who they are as people and as learners. 

That's how we take our next steps forward. That's how we aim high. That's how we notice and love our students. 

It's all about relationships.