Friday, September 26, 2014

Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Do you remember Cheers?  It was a popular sitcom on television in the 1980s about the exploits of a retired baseball player-turned bar owner-in Boston and his employees, friends, and customers.  While I'm not condoning drinking ina bar, the theme song was entitled, "Where Everybody Knows Your Name."  You can listen to the theme here.

I always liked that song.  Everyone should have a place to get away--where everybody knows your name.  You should feel comfortable and welcomed--where everybody knows your name.  You should be able to be yourself-where everybody knows your name.  It's a nice idea.

We live near a large grocery store which was built about the time our now teenage daughters were born.  Grocery shopping is not one of my favorite activities.  I keep going back to that store, however, because people know me there.  In fact, one of the employees, Denise, always asks about our daughters and marvels at how much they've changed since they were babies and in the infant carts.  I remember one time my parents, who do not live locally, took our daughters to that grocery store.  Denise recognized out girls, called them by name and asked, "Jennifer, who are you with today?"  Jennifer, in her three year old confidence, said that she and her sister were with their, "Nana and Papa from Wisconsin."   The shopping trip finished, and all was well.  The next week I saw Denise who told me, "David, I was worried that I didn't recognize who was with your girls.  The girls looked happy, but I still asked just to make sure everything was OK."  Denise, a grocery store check-out clerk, was making sure our 2 and 3 years old daughters were not with strangers and were safe.  The relationship my family has with Denise is why I shop at that store.

Schools are similar.  Recently a family stopped at the end of the day to say hello.  The children had been all the way through our school and no longer have students here.  They were moving to a different state but didn't want to leave without visiting our school secretaries. 

School secretaries are amazing people, and I am and have been privileged to work with many, many wonderful examples.  School secretaries welcome new familes and help those families navigate all of the necessary paperwork to officially register new students---while graciously answering phones that seem to never stop ringing.  School secretaries act as nurses, mechanics, eyeglass repair folks, and computer technicians.  School secretaries help keep our schools safe, ensure resources are available for teachers to teach, and maintain accurate paperwork for the countless reports that need to be submitted.  School secretaries are often counselors, social workers, and sometimes assistant principals.  School secretaries offer smiles, hugs, and even that unmistakable look that says, "You can do better, and I'm going to check on you later."  School secretaries listen, share, suggest, and implement.  School secretaries are accountants, custodians, moms, dads, and occassionally realtors.  School secretaries are constantly looking to learn new ways to be more efficient so they can help our schools be even better. 

But more than anything else...school secretaries build relationships.  They build relationships with students, teachers, colleagues, and parents.  They build relationships with caregivers, grandparents, service providers, and babysitters.  Our school secretaries make our school a place, "Where Everyobody Knows Your Name."  Those relationships, I know, positively impact student achievement, and I am grateful for all of the school secretaries that make and have made my schools better places to learn.

Monday, September 8, 2014

Lessons from the Dishwasher

"Dad!  Something's wrong with the dishwasher."

"What's wrong?"

"The little wheelie thing falls off each time the big rack slides out."

"You mean one of the wheels that guides the top rack is broken?"

"I guess so.  It doesn't look right, and the rack keeps falling down on the floor.  How are we going to wash the dishes?"


You guessed it.  Our family's dishwasher broke about three weeks ago.  Our daughter discovered that one of the wheels that guides the top rack was cracked and falling off.  This resulted in the top rack not sliding in or out.  After reminding our girls that humans have washed dishes by hand for generations prior to the invention of the dishwasher, I decided to take a look.

First, I noticed the plastic clip that held the wheel was broken off.  It wasn't something I could fix, but I could order a replacement piece and repair everything myself.

Once the replacement parts arrived, I was quick to open the package and get started.  Now, I'm a relativley handy person.  My father and grandfather were both mechanics.  They taught me how to handle tools and pay attention to details whenever considering taking something apart.  In fact, my father is still fond of saying, "Anyone can take something apart.  It takes someone with some know-how and determination to put it back together." 

Fixing the dishwasher got me thinking about school.  I don't come to work to "fix" things.  Rather, much of my job is about allocating, acquiring and aligning resources to help teachers and students be successful.  Sometimes, however, things go a little less than perfect.
  • Sometimes students or teachers are balacning difficult personal situations.
  • Sometimes students don't always learn what was taught the first or even second time a lesson was taught.
  • Sometimes the proper resources to help are not always available.
  • Sometimes giving up seems easier than persevering, but we know this is not what is best.
I suppose the list of what can possibly go wrong in a school is endless.  I choose to focus on what is going right, and think of my Dad and grandfather when they are not.  At our school we work together to overcome obstacles, and we don't give up.  It's not always perfect, but our students learn valuable lessons about determination and the real road to success.


PS--I had the dishwasher repaired after 20 minutes; ten minutes to "fix" it incorreclty, and an additional ten minutes to actually read the directions to make sure all of the clips aligned to each other--correctly!  As my wife says, "Some things never change."