#blessed

As many people are aware, each school year and each calendar year I choose my “Word of the Year.” For the 2018-2019 school year, I carefully selected the word sustainability for my professional word and for my personal life, I chose JOY.

For school, I wanted this to be a year where our school came together-and not fall apart. I knew coming into the school year that we had 25 new employees, 3 new programs (GT and 2 self contained classes), multiple long term maternity leaves, and changes in our front office staff. With all of that change, it was important that I focus on the inclusion of the new staff and programs, help teach our new staff the systems and procedures of our school, continue to monitor our school culture, and include the new ideas, knowledge, and energy of new staff members. In choosing sustainability, I dreamed that our school would continue to flourish and grow and not slow down just because we had so many changes. It is somewhat hard to buy into what we’ve built here. Many school just focus on academics and test scores while some focus on discipline. We have together created a culture where we are inclusive of others, we value the opinions of others, we work hard, but we play hard as well. We strive for excellence in learning, in teaching, and everything in between but we also strive to emotionally and physically support our students so that they love coming through the doors of JBE each day. Thus, creating in themselves a lifelong desire to love school, love learning, and love each other despite our differences.

In my personal life, I needed to find my inner joy again. In a manner of just a few months, I had lost my precious mother unexpectedly to sepsis, a dear, dear friend to suicide, and my father through the hands of a drunk driver. I watched our school mourn the death of a faculty member’s child which brought back painful memories of my own baby’s life and death. Holding a staff member’s hand as she left this world and entered into another due to a terrible tragedy again brought the pain of my father’s death hauntingly to my every waking moment. Explaining that death to a 6-year-old who witnessed it was even harder. While I was making it every day with great friends and family to support me and a deep faith that has been my guide for so many years, my inner joy had dimmed and I found myself just not as happy as I usually was. And this wasn’t a place that I had ever found myself. In all my life trials, I had always found a way to come through it with my happy, happy self. 2018 had been hard and as we turned the calendar to 2019, I wanted this to be the year that I once again found my JOY.

And then January 14^th happened. I left my home as I usually do each morning, with a kiss and a “I love you” to my husband. Then as I walked into the school some 5 minutes later, my 14-year-old son called me and told me to come home. My husband had collapsed-a blood clot had moved from his leg to his heart-a terrible silent result of a surgery the week before. And he was gone. The pain I feel is immeasurable. My husband was the love of my life and I am lost without him. I am also so sad for my two sons. No teenager boy should witness your father die.  Usually one who has no problems letting words flow freely, I am at a loss to describe the pain I feel for me, for my boys, and for our dreams that will forever go unfulfilled.

And I think about my words-sustainability and joy. Despite everything that happened-terrible pain and hurt, our school kept running-smoothly. The doors opened on time, the students learned, the buses rolled out with them every afternoon. The students sang, they played, they read, they computated, they laughed, they learned. The faculty taught. The heavy buzz of learning continued. It happened because our school is sustainable. We are able to sustain due to the unending energy, commitment, love of our art and craft, and professionalism of this incredible staff. The staff of Jesse Boyd Elementary is unmatched in your strength, resilience, and commitment to the most difficult job of educating children.

And joy. Even through my unspeakable pain, there is joy. I’ve read every single card our students have made for me and my boys. I’ve read every email or card or text or phone message-sometimes more than once. I have received letter after letter describing the impact that my husband had on others. I watched as almost 700 people attended my husband’s receiving friends, over 500 attend his funeral, and more people that I can count came to my house to hug me, cry with me, or bring me food. I watched so proudly as my 16-year-old son stood in front of hundreds of people and spoke on the lessons from his father. I’ve watched a community embrace my family.  Even through this pain, there is joy.

So I stand here today, trying to put one foot in front of another-and I’ll be completely honest with you-that isn’t always easy- with thoughts on a new word for 2019. Because I’ve fulfilled the other two. Our school is sustainable and I have joy. Blessed is my new word for 2019-both professionally and personally. I am moving forward seeking blessings for our school, staff, and students and I am seeing blessings for my family. But I am also seeking ways to bless others. You see, as an educator-and I’ve been one of those longer than I’ve been a wife and mother- we seek to learn so we can teach others. And that is what I am focusing on- Blessings- those I get and those I give.
Thank you all. My words will never be enough to express the magnitude of my gratitude. 

HalfTime

Each year our family competes in the Rose family Bowl Challenge. Prior to the first bowl game of the 2018-2019 football season, each of us pick who we believe will win each of the bowl games. We keep score and the family member who successfully predicts the most winners becomes the Rose family Bowl Challenge winner. The prize is usually the same. The winner is given the freedom to plan an entire day of our annual family summer vacation and each of us most participate in the activities- and most do so willingly and joyfully, but this year there was money on the line (nothing like teaching your children to bet at an early age). Because our entire family loves football, this makes it fun because we tend to watch many ballgames and many teams that we normally don’t watch. It gives you a purpose to watch the games because you have someone to pull for in each game. 

I started off very strong in the Rose family Bowl challenge this year. I started bowl season 11-0. This was remarkable and the rest of my family stood amazed at my prediction skills. Then the after-Christmas bowl games started and things started to go downhill. I was determined to win because I wanted that money. I was needing a win and I was so excited while watching the Utah-Northwestern game. I had picked Utah to win while the rest of the Rose fam had picked Northwestern and Utah had cruised into halftime with a 20-3 lead.  My winning streak was going to return and I could not be happier about it. But on the opening drive of the second half, Northwestern’s quarterback threw the ball about 60 yards and a great catch was made. In the next play, Northwestern scored on a 4-yard run into the end zone.  The momentum had swung in the direction of Northwestern and they capitalized on what seemed like 20 turnovers. Northwestern turned it around at halftime and ended up winning the game 31-20. After the rest of the Rose family stopped rubbing in the fact that I had lost yet another bowl game, Rosebro 2 reminded me that half-time matters. Half-time adjustments. 

I started thinking about his statement about halftime. In my world of football, halftime is time to watch the band, get more snacks, use the bathroom, get more snacks, and well, get more snacks.  I often forget what may be happening in the locker room during halftime.  I started this discussion with Rosebro2 and my hubby who have been in more halftime locker rooms than anyone cares to count. Rosebro 2 mentioned three things are discussed during half time while the players get their much-deserved rest: Start, Stop, Continue. 

The more Rosebro 2 talked about what happens at halftime, the more I realized that our Winter Holiday is our half-time.  Our Half-time is a time to rest. In fact, I slept past 6am several times during the holidays. I was able to go out to eat with some friends that I haven’t seen in a few weeks. I had game night with my boys a couple of times. I saw a couple of movies at the theater. I read the paper…in the morning! I read a book for pleasure. I cooked. I spent a few days in a cabin in Pigeon Forge. It was an awesome time. And then I started thinking about my half-time adjustments.

What should I start doing? What are some things that are not being done that need to be done? What are some things that are worth trying or experimenting with for better results? What are some things that I wanted to do but haven’t been able to do because other things got in the way? What should we start doing?

What should I stop doing? What are some things that are not working or not helping? What are some things that impede us moving forward? Are there some things we are doing that are not getting the desired results that were intended when we started? Are we doing some things that the staff, the kids, our community doesn’t like? What do we need to stop doing?

What should I continue? What are some things that are working well? What are some things that are worth continuing? What are some things that are liked and needed? What are we doing that we need to continue to do?

I would say that half-time is the most important part of the game. The most important time for making adjustments is halftime. What halftime adjustments will you be making in your class, with your team, for you, for your students, and for our school?  What are you going to start, stop or continue?