Not the slowest zebra...

Wow…it was a LONG “short” week for sure!  Crazy how 4 days can feel so long sometimes.  I was impressed with lots that I saw this week for sure.  Some great behavior in the halls, café, and in the classrooms.  I see increasing small groups, better focus on planning, more academic vocabulary, and a sense of urgency in instruction.  Those are some amazing things to have in place after only 2 weeks of school.  Our kids will certainly benefit from that!  Thank you!

What a great quote… I found this to be quite meaningful to me.  Often times we find ourselves playing the comparison game…it is a dangerous game for sure.  We see other’s “highlight reel” of life and we compare it to our “blooper reel.”  We see what others do in the class by Facebook only, and we don’t think we stack up.  You have a tough job, and if you spend time beating yourself up, it won’t make it any easier.  We all have ways we need to improve, and we should focus on it.  But, we improve by looking in a mirror, not at the people around us.

This quote also helps us not have too much “pedestal thinking” too.  Sometimes, we feel pretty good about ourselves if we can just think of some people that we are “better than.”  So, we don’t push ourselves to get better because at least we aren’t “those guys.”  Great athletes don’t get better by playing mediocre athletes and winning.  You don’t see coaches having the varsity teams play the junior varsity team for the varsity players to improve.   It is good for the JV team, but not for the Varsity.  So, we push ourselves by knowing what we need to improve on.  We compare our improvement based upon our own needs.  We focus on improving ourselves.  This keeps us from thinking “well the lion won’t eat me as long I am faster than one other zebra.”  We need to think how to lead the pack and be the fastest zebra.

Well, I know this was random…zebras…athletes… blooper reals….but I hope it gives you something to think about over the weekend.  I hope today that you are better than you were yesterday. 

Thank you for all you do….Happy Friday!