Navigating Polarization: Rooting Yourself in Team School

One way to fight decision fatigue and lessen the impact of emotional labor

For all the insanity of May-into-June in schools, I miss the excitement, the momentum and the sweet/bitter experience of ending well that permeates every graduation and end of year ceremony. The community disbands with love and the next year will re-form again without some old faces and with plenty of new ones. Yet even those returning will show up just a little bit different from their summer experiences. Schools are really good at rituals and having so many designed to acknowledge the change process, promote thoughtful reflection and make room for plenty of flat-out joyful celebration is a gift. It’s past, present and future tied up in a big white bow.

For my summer vacation, I’ll be online at One Schoolhouse, teaching a PD course on Effective Communications in A Polarized Time in June and August. 

And I’m offering two go-at-you-own pace classes through Stony Creek Strategy:

Writing the School Statement and Writing a Personal Statement or Statement of Ed Phil for those looking at senior admin job applications or just to have one on file when the time comes. 

Register here.

Both courses include written feedback from me so I will be capping registration - Writing School Statements has had a lot of interest so act now if you’re interested!

And as always - feel free to reach out for a chat. 

Navigating a Polarized World: Rooting Yourself in “Team School”

Lessen the exhaustion from emotional labor and decision fatigue by getting in touch with where your personal values connect to your school’s

Back in March, I wrote here about burnout and emotional labor, with some ideas about how to combat it in our school workforce. It was inspired by a long article about burnout in the medical field by Susanna Crossman that appeared in Aeon magazine.

And in this post, I want to explore the idea of becoming a “deep actor” where you don’t “put on the mask” of a calm face but you have a genuinely calm face in more depth. Despite summer becoming busier and busier in the time I worked in schools, there is still more space for reflection and an opportunity to productively prepare for some of the messaging chaos and big feelings coming at us in the world in the fall of 2024.