After a four year journey of elementary principal leadership, I'm retiring. My last official day is June 30, 2025. After 31 years in education, it's time for me to move over for new leadership. I look at is as an opportunity for my colleagues to have access to new energy and I look at it as an opportunity for me to re-direct my focus and prioritize things that have always been the most important things, but sometimes got lost in the shuffle.
For most of 31 years I feel like I have devoted a lot of time to this teaching/leading occupation of education. I have given up time with my own children to do things for others. I regret that. I hope my children understand that and plan to take advantage of the guilt I feel and call on me a lot to help them out. I hope to give back to them some time in the form of being a helper like my parents and in-laws were for me.
I'm ready for the last push for consistency during summer school. My Supt. asked me today why I was in the building working during the week before Summer school begins. My answer to him was, I want to finish strong. I am going to take some PTO. My goal is to not ever have another Monday of work. But, that doesn't mean that the building is not prepared for teachers and students to return on Tuesday. The halls are decorated. There are baskets of supplies. A wall of writing hall of fame is ready and I have prepared lots of resources for teachers to use.
I chose the theme this summer, "The Summer of Storytelling." I want students to fall in love with stories, stories that their peers write, stories that authors write and stories that they write. Even though I am encouraging them to use Google Docs to write, as well as paper and pencil, I don't want them to spend the summer playing games on their computers and I don't want teachers to feel like that's ok either. I'm planning on ending strong. I hope they are too!
So, here's to my last summer school. When I leave at the end of June, I'll be on perpetual summer break...with a few snow showers thrown in during February.
