PPBF: What The Road Said

Butterfly season makes me happy; so does PPBF.

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Leaning In and Leading On

Where has the month gone? Is it Christmas week already?

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Fueled By Loyalty And Love

Today I'm thinking about the idea that everything happens

for a reason, as it's supposed to, in its own time. On purpose.

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Self-Twister & Great Group Leaders

Today I'm excited because I'm joined by my friend, author Susan Ragsdale and we've got an engaging new way using the fun old game of Twister to look at how we can respond when life does its level best to twist us up.

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PPBF: I Promise

Today I'm grateful for Teacher2Teacher for sharing this Tweet.

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Obstacle Or Opportunity?

Today I'm excited because my letter to the Class of 2020

is now live at the Free Spirit Publishing blog {here}.

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Reflecting Beauty And Brokenness

Last night I was blessed to tag along with my daughter to the wedding of her childhood friends Allie and Evan; today I'm still thinking about beauty and brokenness because of what their Pastor told us through them during the service.

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The Year of WE

Happy new year from Whitcomb Elementary,

where we're celebrating the year of WE.

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Inspiring Leaders

Today I'm excited because the sun has come back.

And because I've been busy inspiring leaders

and being inspired by some of the best.

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Unplugging and Plugging In

Happy March and National Day of Unplugging. 

It's an important crusade, to get us off of our devices because, left to them, we risk getting sucked in to too much screen time and missing precious moments.
This post suggests we aim for 4-6 hours outside per day. Why not? That's nearing the average time that teens spend online. 

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Savoring The Path To Serendipity

Friday morning, I was in a sort of end-of-the-year funk,

just going through the motions,

watching the minutes click off of the clock.

Before the first hour had passed, I had a text from a friend,

asking if I'd seen that there was an active shooter in Santa Fe.

Wait, what? Our Santa Fe, just down the road Santa Fe?

My AP and our maintenance man both live in Santa Fe.

Before long, news that an officer was down.

And then, the update that eight young lives were taken.

Just like that.

A kid killing kids.

I absolutely couldn't catch my breath

at the thought of us losing our most precious resource.

Children.

Again.

Two teachers died, too; 

heroes who couldn't stand the thought of their students being shot.

After school, when our own students had left for the weekend

and I could relax and reflect,

I sat in our comfort chair and I cried,

for the devastated families whose loved ones aren't coming home,

for how horrifically frightening and long that day must have been,

for how painful the days, months and years ahead will likely be.

I cried for innocence lost. 

Again.

And I felt overwhelming helplessness.

If ever I needed The Path to Serendipity

and get a booster shot of healing and hope, 

it was this weekend.

And look what was waiting on my doorstep when I got home. 

There are so many nuggets of inspiration in this one little treasure to help us unwrap the present and discover life's gifts.

As I devoured through the text savoring every sentence, I found myself making so many connections with principal and author Allyson Apsey, from our upbringing in the midwest to battling bullying in high school to working with intention to live a life that matters.

This authentic, bold leader is the real deal.

And her spot-on reflections are positively uplifting.

Even in her journey's stops which require tissues,

Allyson is able to find sparkly diamonds 

where it seems there's nothing but dust.

She reminds us that it's all about

what we choose to mine.

Even when life gets painful.

She credits her years of experience as well as 

her training in William Glasser's Choice Theory

for many of her myriad wise insights and connections.

I especially love the reminder about Glasser's belief

that everyone has five basic needs,

belonging, fun, freedom, power, and survival,

something to keep in mind the next time

we happen upon an argument, 

a conflict 

or a challenging behavior.

I know it'll help us not only professionally

but with personal relationships as well.

Oh, I could go on and on, but instead

I'll invite you to check out The Path to Serendipity;

I'm quite certain you'll be thankful that you did.

Thank you, Allyson, for sharing your heartbeat;

I could feel your passion and your joy on every page.

{Oh, and you were right; I loved the forward by Brad Montague!}

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Social Stations

Today I'm super excited because we go back into Social Station rotation in counseling classes this week. Here's what we have planned:

1. In the Creation Station, we'll be writing thank-you notes, like these, only on 3x5 cards, for a volunteer in our community who distributes them when she sees a man or woman in uniform. We must never forget ... 

2. At the Staging Station {with or without puppets}, we'll be role playing different scenarios and working through some common, every-day conflicts.

3. In the Ukulele Lab, we'll be learning our first few chords. In a fun development after a Twitter convo yesterday, we'll be adding ten ukuleles to our lab thanks to the generosity of authors Dave and Shelley Burgess of Teach Like A Pirate and P is for Pirate fame. 

I sure hope Mr. Fred can find us ten more chairs!

Update: Yay - the new UKEs have arrived! 

4. In the Reflection Station, students will be writing and drawing their thoughts about last week's Dennis Lee show and/or our Hometown Heroes pep rally.

5. There'll also be a Gaming Station and a Collaboration Station, both of which will have connection activities to sharpen our problem-solving and leadership skills.

UPDATE: Check out this collaboration!

So there ought to be something for all learning styles and work preferences. Do you use Social Stations to facilitate and nurture your students' social and emotional growth? If so, we'd love for you to share how they work.

Need more ideas? Check out this presentation on Character Centers!

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Opening Doors

Today I'm excited about a $5 purchase I made at Half Price books.

It's a doorstop for the heavy door at the entrance to Hero Headquarters. 

Perfect, right?

And, if you know me, you know that I see more than just a doorstop. I see an acrostic for four critical aspects of leadership.

S is for service.

               T is for trustworthiness.

                   O is for open-mindedness.

 P is for passion.

Effective leaders start with the heart. They're on the lookout for ways to make things better because they're all about serving others. Effective leaders are also trustworthy. We can count on them because they are honest in their dealings, they keep their promises, and they show integrity by being in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing. Effective leaders have a growth mindset. They're lifelong learners who firmly believe that anything is possible. Anything. And effective leaders live life with great passion. They go to great lengths to enthusiastically and wholeheartedly transfer energy and light to others.

But those are just my thoughts about what STOP might stand for.

I'm so eager to hear what my superheroes at Bales think when I pose the inquiry: What leadership skills will open doors for us?

If you're in the area, please stop by Hero Headquarters; 

we'll keep the door opened for you!

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For Good

I know, I know, I'm supposed to be on summer break,

but I couldn't get this empty bulletin board off my mind

so I went up to my new space and decorated.

And now that the grief of that hard good-bye has subsided, 

I am so super excited about my new opportunity.

I'm planning a lot of really fun stations, in Leadership Central.

This bulletin board area will be one of them.

Here's the inquiry: How can we use our superpowers to change the world ... for good? I've listed a few things that we can do, with intention, to spark that change.

Listen.

Show empathy. 

Lift each other up.

Apologize.

Forgive.

Be Kind.

Respect. 

Volunteer. 

Talk it over.

Tell the truth.

Show gratitude.

We're going to talk about what they would add.

And I'm going to have blank bubbles for them to do just that.

There'll also be a brainstorming center,

a make-and-take center,

a role-play center,

a reflection center.

I'm especially excited about the latter because I've got a three-sided dressing-room mirror that we'll have questions posted on and reflection journals to scribe their answers. I'm positively intrigued by the possibilities ...

So today I'm feeling grateful, 

for the chance to nurture the skills of our middle-aged leaders as they soar to new heights and lead, on purpose, to change the world

 ... for good. 

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Developing Leaders

This morning I woke up with leadership on my mind. When I stumbled on #satchatwc, it moved to my heart. After the chat, I went on a walk and felt it literally going to my feet and filling me with all sorts of plans for the upcoming school year in my new space at my new school, and now I'm really excited about developing leaders.

This weekly Saturday-morning chat, moderated by the motivational and effervescent Shelley Burgess, starts at 9:30 am CST and lasts an hour. I use TweetDeck to follow along and weigh in. On the chance that you've not been a part of a Twitter Chat before, here's how it goes. 

On Twitter, we have 140 characters for our answer.

Today, that wasn't a hard framework to work within,

but sometimes it's tricky and we have to be creatively concise.

Our topic this morning was The Leadership Countdown.

Here are the questions {published with Shelley's permission} and my responses, followed by a few of my favorites.

Empathize, equip, empower, engage with energy & enthusiasm.

That's how I answered. Then I read through all of the other reflections and I truly connected with this heartfelt response from my friend Steph Frosh:

And I love this one, from Art Liberman:

How would you answer that reflection question?

Thank you for being here, friend.

Another favorite answer from Steph: 

Talk about the power of collaboration, moving from me to we!

I know it won't work.

Here's a good one from Shelley: That's how it's always done.

and an illustration of Amos to go with it.

Don't these culture-killer reflections set your mind spinning?

Give kind, get kind. {Kindness is the real global warming, after all}

And one of my faves, this one from Jessica Torres;

Make your words count.

Another winner from Danielle Brown: Share your awesome today.

Be someone's SUPERHERO.

And this one, from Jonathan Kegler {and God}:

And a fan favorite from Beth Houf: Walk the talk! 

Let's grow. 

More wisdom from Steph:

Dave Burgess added these two words: Join Us.

My one little word: Kindness.

Other reflective OLWs I connected with: 

impact, resilience, relationships, transparency,

authenticity, innovation, engagement,

passion, outreach, growth.

Shelley tells me that in just over an hour, there were some 2000 tweets, retweets, favorites, and interactions. Click {here} to read through the archives. 

Now I'm heading to the pool for some reflection of a different kind along with some much-needed Vitamin D.

Before I go to soak up some sunshine, riddle me this:

How are you developing leaders for tomorrow today?
{Oh, and don't worry about your word count.}

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Inspiring Mentorship

This evening as we close out another week, I'm on Cloud 9 about all of the amazing things going on at our school. One of my favorite annual events, our Round Up Carnival fundraiser, is just around the corner. In fact, the Fun Run is tomorrow morning. The generosity of our community really shines at Round Up time. From the countless hours of volunteerism leading up to the event, to the staff members who donate Teacher Treats and provide gathering opportunities to our students, to the giving family members who buy tickets not only for their own kids but for our families in need, I am blown away and stand in awe. Of all of it.

All of it, for the kids.

Thank you, Shelley Burgess, for this beautiful reminder.

We get more of what we focus on, so it just makes sense to affirm and encourage the positivity and passion of these dedicated volunteers and servant leaders.

Another reason I'm super energized this week is because I got to Skype with Paul Solarz's fifth graders in Illinois yesterday and I couldn't have been more impressed with this student-led classroom. Their plan is to mentor some kindergarten students in their school family and I was invited to empower and equip them 

with some start-up skills.

Because of some obvious front-loading, leadership and coaching from an award-winning educator, this pirate classroom could quite clearly run itself. Talk about your positive climate; I seriously didn't want the hour to end. We focused on strengths and self-esteem as we collaborated to launch their mentorship program.

I asked reflection questions like these: 

What is your superpower?

How do you use those superpowers for good?

Who is your superhero?

To whom are you a superhero?

What is your Kryptonite?

What superpowers will you use as you mentor? 

They asked me questions back:

What is my superpower?

Can a pet be a superhero?

What happens when I can't cheer someone up? 

What made me want to write the book?

What are some of the chapter titles?

What's the name of my website?

I challenged them to use their Covey wisdom and begin with the end in mind, then suggested a few activities that they could use as they build that relationship with their little buddies. In honor of National Poetry Month, they willingly and eagerly attempted my Empathy Switch poem and hand challenge with me.

So as I prepare to call it a day, my emotional reserve overflows with the assurance that there are students like my new friends at Westgate Elementary at the helm and taking the lead. 

Check out Learn Like A Pirate and see for yourself how you could set the course for such smooth sailing with your shipmates.

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That Small-Town Pride

Yesterday was a big day in our small town.

A few weeks back, our High School Marching Band earned a spot in State competition. In 6A, the large-school category. That meant we would march with the 37 top bands from the 245 largest High Schools in the State of Texas.

A big event calls for an extra-big send-off,

so we broke out the rally towels and the character flag

and saw them off in style.

It's so wonderful to live in a place where a Hometown Hero sendoff is the rule rather than the exception, where hometown fans caravan to San Antonio behind the busses to fill the Alamo Dome with cheers of jubilation as their teen musicians and dancers put on their game faces ...

and perform their hearts out, leaving it all on the field.

Let's watch as they perform their 2014 show,

Echoes Of Time:

After the performance, UIL officials interviewed head Drum Major Emma, who also happens to be a Westwood-Bales alum, and asked her what it felt like be the leader of such a wonderful group and to be making their debut in 6A competition. She said that it was amazing to be there and added that her role as leader of the band was really all about serving others. My heart jumped with joy when I heard this young leader tell everyone in the Dome how important servant leadership is.

I'm planning to show this performance in my next peace-class lesson, when we talk about empathy. What would it be like to walk in a band member's shoes, from that first day of practice in August before you even know if you're going to earn a spot, through all of the rehearsals and competitions, to performing in front of thousands of fans four months later at 6A State? 

What would it take? 

What would you need? 

How would it feel? 

Could you do the job of a Drum Major? A dancer? A musician? What instrument would you like to play? What if you didn't qualify for a spot in the band? Would you be okay with the job of pushing those bells around? Is any job out on that field more important than another? Why or why not?

Our daughter Kaitlyn met us at the competition, to watch her brother march. Seems like just yesterday she was wearing that very uniform.

As we awaited news about the top-ten finalists,

her University of Texas Longhorn Band performed for us.

Here's the patriotic portion of their 2014 Veterans Day show:

Our performance in prelims placed us in a tie for 14th, so we didn't advance to finals yesterday. But in the end, it's not the trophy or rank that determines whether or not we win. It's the diligence, determination, and drive of each and every one of these dedicated individuals who band together to create something so beautiful that puts them at the top, regardless of what the final scores say. 
Their hard work is passion and perseverance personified.

They truly are our pride and joy, and when they represent our small town so well, it makes those early morning rehearsals and all of the chaos of running around from pillar to post during marching season so well worth it. 

Thank you, Mighty Mustang Band; 
your big success makes our small town proud.

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