Live Your Mission

As I began to prepare to return to work, I was overcome with both excitement and anxiety.  I was thankful to return to a job that gives me purpose with people who inspire me everyday.  I was also sad to leave my little guy so early.  Major life events often force us to take a second look at our mission.  Over the holidays, I felt overwhelmed by the need to clearly define my personal mission and my family's mission.  For me, trying to balance the demands of family and work required clearly defining the "why" of our family and making sure that we were living a life that aligned to our mission.

I spoke with my husband about my idea for creating a family mission statement and he was on board.  On New Year's Eve, we sat down with our children and had them say whatever they wanted to about what they considered our core values, "why" our family existed, our family's purpose, etc.  We were amazed by the comments they made and tried to let their voices be the loudest in the room.

It took a few more days of writing and clarifying but after several drafts we had a family mission statement.  I used recitethis.com from our August PD to turn our words into a beautiful piece of wall art and hung our mission statement in our kitchen.  In addition, the girls also created personal vision boards, similar to the Begun With the End in Mind Road activity many teachers use, to help them achieve their short term goals and think about their long term goals.

Creating Vision Boards

In one of the 7 Habits videos, Stephen Covey talks about how he walked on the beach and sat down to write his mission statement.  He said that after several hours he had a mission statement and was overcome by a feeling of clarity.  I can honestly say that after spending the time to create our family mission statement, I too was left with a feeling of peace and clarity.  Remember, as Antoine de-Saint Exupery said, 

Keep living the 7 Habits!  Research shows that we are happiest when we have a strong purpose and the vitality to pursue our purpose.  Is your daily life aligned to your mission statement?  

Big Rocks:

A big thank you to Judy, Robin, Diane, Ron, Mary Ann, Nicole, and Julie for all of their hard work for Career Day.  We have 23 speakers this year and we will be ready to welcome them on Friday. The schedule is as follows:

Breakfast

Session One: 9:10-9:40

Session Two: 9:50-10:20

Session Three: 10:30-11:00

Presentation and Lunch 11:15

An additional thank you to Karen and Fatino for the musical presentation and spirit singers and all staff who are working with students to prepare them for their Career Day jobs.

We have two new staff members!  A warm welcome to our new gym teacher, Julie Adams, and a big congratulations to Jillian Black who was officially hired as our new Center teacher.  We are so happy to have both of you join the Cooper team!

Week of January 26:

Monday: Sarah and Terry Lunch Meeting with Speech Writers 11:15

Tuesday: Lighthouse Meeting 3:45

Wednesday: Cooper Learning Lab 8:00-11:00

                    Planning Team 3:45

Thursday: 7 Habits Administer Training (Terry all day, Sarah 12:15-3:15)

                 Menchies Fundraiser

Friday: Career Day 9:00-1:00

Thinking Win-Win is hard for me. It requires thinking!

Habit 4 is Think Win-Win. It is not simply win-win. It's about developing a habit of considering the other person's needs as well as our own. As habits go, it's a difficult one. Not only do we have to change our common paradigm of needing to negotiate, compromise, and even manipulate others so we get what we want, but we need to always be thinking about what others need. We even have to ask them sometimes to tell us what they need.

A really good explanation of Habit 4 can be found at:

http://sidkemp.hubpages.com/hub/The-Seven-Habits-A-Practical-Summary-Habit-4-Win-Win.

This is Sid Kemp's blog on the 7 Habits. He does a great job helping us to understand using the habits in everyday life.

I've always been a competitor. I played a lot of sports and had to compete with others for positions on the team. One sport I participated in was wrestling. I had to earn my spot before every match by beating the teammate who wanted to wrestle at my weight class. Sometimes, I would talk him out of competing with me, with trying trying to go against someone a weight higher. Thinking win-lose can be tiring.

So can thinking lose-win. So often we pick lose-win because it's easier. We do the extra work, give in to our kids (students or our own), or take care of the hard chore ourselves because we think it's less difficult. What we miss is that the more we give in, the more we go for lose-win, the less of ourselves is left. We need to have the courage to take care of our needs, too. there are consequences for taking what appears to be the easy way.

Habit 4 is hard for me. I have to think in order to think win-win.

BIG ROCKS

• A huge THANK YOU to Angie for filling in during Sarah's absence. She did an outstanding job handling write-ups and parents and learning some of what we do in the office. I think she'd agree that there's more to it than meets the eye. Thank you, Angie! Now we need to support Angie as she begins to learn her students and their needs.
• We have a lockdown drill on Tuesday at 10:30ish. We know there are some people who have trouble hearing the PA. We want to document the drill based on what happens when we try it with the PA as is. We'll see how it goes. Please lockdown in the regular way when you hear the announcement or otherwise know the drill has begun. We will come looking for you within a few minutes of calling the drill. As far as students are concerned, we are drilling to see if they are ready to follow our directions. Your direction to them in the drill is to hide and be silent. The district has not given us new parameters for lockdown drills.
• A big thanks to Lauren, Annette, and Judy for getting the new signs up in the building. They look great! And the 7 Habits are displayed again! Check out the Cooper Facebook page for pics!
• Charles Fonbuena contacted me and we met on Monday. He has a new student planner he'd like  us to help pilot. We can pilot up to 5 in each classroom or, if there some of you who would prefer to not pilot, there can be more for more students to try in piloting rooms. I will have them in my office if you're interested. If you choose to pilot, Charles would like to get some feedback from you after 9 weeks of use. I'll create a GoggleDoc for the feedback.
• Terry's surgery is expected to be rescheduled for April, hopefully around the 14th. We should be able to get the testing schedules done by then so we have smooth sailing while I'm out. If April 14 works for the doc, I'll be back mid to late May. Late May. Early June. We'll see.

The schedule for this week:

Monday:          MLK Day

Tuesday:          8:00 Center EPT
                         8:45 LEAD Time
                        10:30 Lockdown Drill
                         3:45 Lighthouse Team meeting
                         4:30 Staff Forum re: budget for next year
                         6:00 Parent Lighthouse Team meeting
                         6:30 Community Forum re: budget for next year

Wednesday:     Illuminate training (8:15-11:15 for Robin, Judy, and Victoria)
                         7:30 7 Habits training (Terry at LCTC all day)
                         8:00 IST
                         Noon, 7 Habits training (Sarah at LCTC)
                         3:45 Planning Team

Thursday:         Iowa/CogAT testing ends
                         8:00 Staff Meeting
                         1:00 EPM (Terry and Sarah at CO)
                         6:00-7:30 Staff party at Bar Louie

Friday:             Teacher Workday, home optional
                         8:00 Title I Meeting at CO
                         2:00 LEADS Meeting
                     

Hard to lose loved ones

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.        ― Rumi (1207-1273)

The holiday break of 2014-15 was memorable for many things, including visiting with family. Mostly, however, we will forever remember this holiday season for the time two important LPS members, Susie Schnettler and Ann Kalec, lost their battles with cancer. Most profoundly, losing Susie will affect our students and families at Cooper, as well as all of us. She was such a positive person, so in touch with what is important in life, that it's difficult to believe cancer could take her. She defeated cancer nine years ago with such an amazing attitude, such strength of spirit, that I was hopeful she would win again. This time, cancer found its way to extinguish her body, despite her unwavering sureness she would survive. Everytime I saw her or talked to her, she told me she'd be coming back to Cooper. Her death over the holidays was surprising and sad. If you have not done so, check out the Cooper Facebook page and see the many tributes by students and parents.

Ann Kalec was the principal at Cooper for eight years before moving to Coolidge 10 years ago. She remained there through the Legacy Initiative. Ann and I began our relationship when she took over at Coolidge and I moved to McKinley. We talked frequently and then worked together in LEADS as negotiators and board members. I will miss her down-to-earth attitude. She taught me to treasure the truly important things in life. She was a huge Spartans football fan and Detroit Lions fan. I know she enjoyed seeing their successes this season. I cannot watch either team without thinking of her. The Rumi quote above fits Ann so well. She was simply reasonable about what needed her attention and helped everyone around her focus on what they could do rather than what they wanted others to do.

It's hard to think of the world without these two people. Their spirits were strong, their beliefs infectious. They both were pivotal in the lives of the people they loved and who loved them. In our remembrance of them, we can see them as leaders, as people who fulfilled the vision we have for our students: to be strong, capable people who will lead us in the future.

Rum left us with the quote above. It was an anthem of Ann's and Susie's to help others change themselves. We can always be appreciative they were in our lives.

Ann's visitation is this Friday at Heeney-Sundquist Funeral Home in Farmington from 2:00-8:00 pm. There will be a service at 10:00 am on Saturday at the same location.

Susie's family will have a memorial service later. We will let you know as soon as we know. They are not planning a funeral.

As we take care of students this week who will be mourning Susie's passing, we need to take care of each other as well. Each of us had a relationship with Susie. Losing our friend is going to take time for us to grieve. I'm glad we will be together this week.

BIG ROCKS

• Iowa/CogAT is scheduled for this week for sixth grade. Teachers will have to read their class's receptability to testing. The window is big enough to wait a couple of days if your class will be more ready.
• That being said, it is important to maintain routines for the students at this time. This is a re-start to the year, so go over the expectations and responsibilities for students. We will be having indoor recesses with the cold weather expected, so include expectations for those days, too.
• Sally and Annette will be working with the Student Lighthouse Team to begin looking at a memorial of some kind in memory of Susie. If you have ideas, pass them on to Sally or Annette.
• This is the last week of Sarah's leave. While we'll be happy to have Sarah return, we owe a big thanks to Angie for stepping in for Sarah. She's been a big help in the office, especially to me. Thank you, Angie!!!
• The training for LPS administrators in 7 Habits begins this week. I will be out Tuesday and Thursday helping with the training, as well as a couple of days next week. I am looking forward to spreading the potential that 7 Habits brings each person.

This week's schedule includes:

Monday...             8:00 meeting of SW/Psychs with Julie and office staff.

                             CogAT materials ready for pick up in Conference Room

Tuesday...             Terry at LCTC all day for 7 Habits Training

                             8:00 Center EPT

                             8:45 LEAD Time

                             3:45 LH Team meeting LMC

Wednesday...        8:00 IST in Conference Room

                             3:45 Planning Team

Thursday...           Terry at CO all day for 7 Habits Training

                             8:00 Staff Meeting

Friday...                ???