The Journey of Reflection Begins

(Obtained from: http://relevantlifechurch.net/ministries)

It all started on February 3, 2016 when Jimmy Casas (@casas_jimmy) shared some wonderful insight with our area principals association in his keynote, "Creating a Culture of Excellence". One of the pieces that stuck with a colleague of mine, Shawn Page (@DocPages) and I was Jimmy's challenge to take time to reflect and to begin blogging about your reflections.

It made perfect sense to me - I'm not the only principal in my district; definitely not the only principal in our conference; and definitely not the only principal in our region or state. However, I am one of many principals who are passionate about education and what our roles are as lead learners. One of many who are passionate about success of students, who create vision and build capacity in colleagues, who coach and provide feedback to teachers, and promote the success of our schools. The challenges and successes we experience in our own schools are not different from other schools, whether it be within our own state, our own country, or even schools around the world. We talk with our colleagues in our own district, call or shoot an email to another friend in the conference about their insight or practices, and even pose questions to our PLN using Twitter and Hashtags. But blogging? What's that going to do?

As lead learners, we build up our teachers to help build our vision and to jump in 'feet first' into the things we ask them to try. If it comes out successful, then we celebrate. If it didn't go as planned, then we know what to do differently. In the end, it is about trying and learning from it. The same goes for my own challenge - to share my reflections in a blog.

Honestly, I didn't start thinking about sharing my reflections and blogging it...until today. Exactly two weeks later, February 17, 2016,  Shawn contacted me on Twitter talking about blogging and connecting the dots with others locally. Our direct messages quickly moved to Voxer and what he wants to do and asked for advice. (I'm humbled that he asked me - two weeks later and I still haven't blogged yet.) Our paired conversation quickly added Jimmy Casas to the mix again. Great questions about which platform, what works best, what to blog about, etc. As I became more excited about blogging, I need to remember that it is not about the destination. I found this quote that helps put blogging (for me) into perspective.

(Obtained from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/l/laotzu137141.html)

Today is my first step in sharing my reflections of a lead learner. I'm not sure where this journey is going to lead me, but I do know this - If we as leaders ask our own teachers to take a leap and to jump in feet first into an endeavor, we must also model those behaviors. Thank you, Shawn and Jimmy, for the challenge...challenge accepted.