Friday - The End of the Week Stories

     Early in my career I used to gather with colleagues at the end of the week over a cold drink and share stories of the week that was. In general, these stories could be characterized as "the disasters of the week" and often referenced negative events (albeit with a humorous spin to them).  Those who had the best story to share would sit quietly and let the pretenders share their event before relaying the "mother of all stories". These longer sagas created lots of laughter and provided some release from the stress of the work we do.  I'm not here to condemn those story swaps and was a willing participant. Instead, I wonder if we should start taking a similar amount of time to share the awesome things that are percolating daily in all of our schools.

     Public education appears to be the recipient (or cause in some people's view) of bad news in society today. If the key folks in the system (teachers, parents, principals, vice-principals, administrators, and students) only share the disasters in these social gatherings, who will be the bearers of the good news?

     Today marks the end of Education Week in my locale and I want to share with you some of the tremendous events that occurred. We had fabulous displays of student work at the two malls in our larger communities and at various businesses in our smaller ones.  Students took great pride in seeing their work displayed (as in the photo) and many community members were provided insights into the work going on in schools.  We had the graduating students reading to elementary school students on one of the days, a math class being delivered on another, and a music class performing on a third. These all occurred in the mall and drew lots of positive attention. Our elementary schools took part in the district basketball tournament which was also open to the public.

     What's happened in your schools this week?  As you head into the weekend which stories will you share? If you have the time to post a comment, share something great that happened in your school. All of us have the capacity to be transmitters of good news and empower each other with many more good news stories to share.  At the very least it may cause those who believe they know our world to pause and reflect on why educators are a critical component of a healthy and sustainable future, and perhaps stop imposing challenges that impinge on our capacity to be difference makers.