Grace

Progressing through a school year is often fast and furious. Start of the year is a blur in routine setting, providing useful PD for in-service, and assessing BOY objectives for students. I always found August and May were the hardest months of the school year! Coming back to school, student energy is high, parents are nervous and need reassurance, and teachers are trying to set the pace. May, conversely, has very tired students, tired teachers, and tired parents. This is where I know I see most issues for student behavior, parent unrest, and teacher burnout. The last day of school comes one day, and the very next administrators are meeting to finish planning for the next school year- no time to celebrate the end of a successful and safe year! This is often the case with smaller independent schools where leaders wear many different hats while maintaining a high sense of responsibility. But how can we combat this kind of burnout while fully acknowledging it is probably inevitable? To me, it comes back to grace, patience, and listening skills. 

As educators, we are always expected to give grace, but also to expect none in return. That is okay, as it comes with the territory. In acting with grace toward others, we model the kind of responses we would like, the kind we model to our students, and a window into kindness and understanding that are very absent in today’s society.  Grace is underrated in my opinion. When showing grace to students, parents, and staff, it activates empathy while still maintaining a healthy boundary. When emotions run high, we need to respond versus react and listen carefully so we can respond with grace. Grace will build trust, it lets everyone know you are human, but at the heart of things you genuinely care. It is a reminder that you are all on the same team, working toward the same goals. 

Patience, on the other hand, has never been one of my best virtues! But I learned patience pretty quickly as a principal and it led to the need for grace when problem-solving and listening to families, students, and teachers. Active listening, repeating/rephrasing concerns, and clarification have been invaluable when dealing with difficult situations, even when heightened by burnout. Training staff on strategies for acting with grace, patience, and listening is necessary because it does not always come naturally to us. It takes practice, reminders, and mistakes to grow in this area. But in the end, our responses will set the course for culture in our schools. So take a deep breath….reflect on this school year and take time to celebrate. As you reset and look forward, I encourage you to take time to see how grace already fits into your practices and how it can be implemented more.