Month: June 2020

Since safer at home started it has been an adjustment. I am grateful for the extra family time that it has created as life has slowed down. We have enjoyed more dinners together and our 21-month old son loves safer at home because it means that mom and dad are home together with him more than ever. My wife is always pushing me to be a better version of myself than I was the day before and that includes exercise. She has successfully lobbied for me to join her and our son on almost daily walks. I begrudgingly go on the family walk and I have never admitted to her how much I enjoy the family time as we appreciate nature and time together. Our walks started in March and the weather in Wisconsin can be brisk. Good days for a walk to my wife was basically any time it was not raining or snowi...

I am sorry for my actions, I let my emotions get the best of me. Have you ever had to say this to anyone? Emotions can run high and emotions can drive you to do things that you normally do not do. In the current climate too, many people are reacting to situations based on pure emotion and not always allowing information to come to light or clarity to be provided to a situation. I have often debated with myself if emotions are a weakness. Nobody has ever had to apologize for their actions because the remained too calm, cool and collected in a situation. This is something that can be easy in principle but harder to implement in practice. This inner battle on whether emotion is a weakness weighs heavily on me as a person. I am a passionate person and I am driven by emotion. I have also had...

“Be quick, but don’t hurry”-John Wooden This quote from Wooden gets used quite often, and it has driven me to reflect on what this means to leadership. As I am transitioning into my principal position there are so many things that I want to do, and that need to happen to improve the experience for our students. I have been reflecting and prioritizing and looking at what things will translate into high leverage strategies that will improve student outcomes. As I have met the staff there is excitement and an eagerness to improve. How do I lead them quickly but at the same time providing due diligence to the process of growth? How do I be quick without hurrying? The first piece was to gather some data on what the priorities were of the staff and what was the student data telling me? I c...

Earlier this week I underwent a cornea transplant surgery. Since 2005 I have had issues with my left eye and over time the situation deteriorated. I was deemed legally blind in my left eye in 2010. I had significant issues on and off with my left eye that required regular monitoring by my eye doctor. My cornea was a steeper cone than a typical cornea and this caused thinning which led to scar tissue, which led to me not being able to see. I have always made due with one eye but now my life was different. One of my favorite memories as a child was being able to play catch with my dad. Now that I have a 21-month-old son I want to be able to play catch with him. Being blind in one eye causes great difficulty with depth perception and a simple activity like playing catch becomes much more diff...