Don’t You Put That Evil on me Jimmy Casas!

     I view time as my most valuable resource and am always loathe to surrender it without a clear payoff personally or professionally.  I am honored that you made the decision to spend your precious time reading the words I am penning here.  I always appreciate a good story, so I will describe a bit of my journey that has led me to the world of journaling for all to see, a.k.a. blogging!

     At a conference in 2013 I had the pleasure of spending a day with technology guru Alan November.  Alan has tremendous energy and passion when he presents.  I felt as if I was peppered by a shotgun blast of ideas that day.  One pellet from that blast that tweaked my interest was the use of Twitter as a tool for professional learning and as a means to celebrate my campus.  The next significant player who put me on the path to become a blogger was Jimmy Casas.  I first met Jimmy last school year at a district principal’s collaborative.  Jimmy is one of those passionate educators that makes you think about how you do your work and challenges you to stretch to the next level.  During a follow up conversation about my campus push for using Twitter, he challenged me to begin blogging.    Questions to myself: Is it worth my time?  Would anyone really care to read it?  I dismissed that challenge.

     During the summer, our district leadership participated in staff development centered on the book, “What Connected Educators Do Differently”  (Casas, Whitaker, and Zoul).  We used Twitter and Voxer as our means to dialog about the book.  This was an amazing opportunity to connect with authors Jeffery Zoul and Jimmy Casas.  The topic of blogging came up again during this time.  Although many KISD principals began to blog after these conversations, I still was reluctant to commit the time.

     During our Administrative Conference in July, Jimmy visited our district again.  I was fortunate to once again have a conversation with him about my work with Twitter at my campus.  Again, he challenged me to stretch and begin blogging.  As I drove away from that encounter, I was thinking about a scene from Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.  In this scene, Ricky’s pit crew chief exclaims, “Don’t you put that evil on me Ricky Bobby!”   Of course, I substituted Jimmy’s name for Ricky’s as I once again feared for the time taken.  After some further reflection, I have decided to accept Jimmy’s challenge.  His persistence has created the professional imperative for me to begin sharing my craft knowledge in a different way.  

Inherent in the decision to blog was my belief that:

•          I have a set of experiences and ideas that are worthy of sharing
•          Expressing my ideas to others helps me to clarify and articulate my vision
•          Blogging is a means to build a personal legacy

     As I look at this bulleted list, I realize that this the “why” that Simon Sinek urges us to always start with.  Now that I had the “why” it was time to look at the “what”. I want my blog to be professional and focused.  I sat with my mentor, Tory Hill, and shared that my stretch for this year was to begin blogging.  I wanted to know his thoughts on the “what.”  Like all great mentors, Dr. Hill is able to identify strengths and coach your growth areas.  Dr. Hill suggested I share my practical approach to providing instructional leadership. 

With this focus of sharing a practical approach to school leadership, I am now in that excited state that one has when you have been given a professional imperative and a means to accomplish it.  My next blogs will be all about how we developed our instructional model here at MRJH.  We call this our Accomplished Teaching Model.