#LiveLikeAPirate

As Todd Whitaker says: “When the principal sneezes, the entire school catches a cold.”

Well, when the principal, the instructional coach, the school secretaries, the custodians, and most (if not all) of the teaching staff sneeze, the cold spreads quickly! And we’re talking about an actual cold. Actually, we’re talking about the flu. A terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad flu!

Let’s just say it: February was rough! Thank goodness for March!

In addition, our community made some difficult, but important decisions, about how to structure our schools and how we configure our grade levels. Our district is moving students and administrators around, and a lot has been said about our schools and programs. This sparked a lot of conversation (some really important conversation) and a lot of meetings. It’s been a long month of listening and reflecting, and helping people through the process of change.

As George Couros says: “Change is an opportunity to do something amazing.” But to realize those opportunities and do amazing things, you’ve got to go through the process of accepting change and you’ve got to do it together.

What really made February difficult, though, was the fact that Greg’s father was diagnosed with cancer and Greg’s world hasn’t quite been the same. The good news is that Greg’s dad has started treatment and the prognosis, though still uncertain, looks promising. But it’s been rough a month.

So Kali and Greg (mostly Greg) took a break from the #ReadLikeaPirate Blog because it felt more important to #LiveLikeAPirate and to be present for our families and for our school family.

We still kept reading The Writing on the Classroom Wall – which was actually a really great book to be reading throughout all of this because it is a book about your educational beliefs and making those beliefs known. Because in difficult times, it is really important to know and make known your beliefs.

We’re almost done with the book and will post about it soon. And then we’ve decided to change the plan and read A Passion for Kindness because we could all use a little more kindness in our lives right about now. In fact, it’s the only thing that really helped get us through February!

We know it means that we’re not reading the DBC Inc. Books in order, but you know what… we’re PIRATES, we can change our own rules!

Much love,

Greg and Kali