Yesterday was a really amazing day, the kind of day every dedicated teacher deserves and so few actually get. The SLA faculty has nominated me for the ASCD Outstanding Young Educator Award and they used the end of our Science Fair Assembly on Friday as an opportunity to celebrate that nomination. It was a truly wonderful moment, and one that reminded me powerfully how lucky I am to have had the career I have had so far and to work with such amazing people every day at SLA.

Throughout my career as an educator, I have been so fortunate because I have worked with and for people who have only ever asked "How big can you dream?" and "How hard are you willing to work in service of that dream?" At Beacon, I learned from educators who always believed in what was possible for kids. They believed in educating the whole child, and they believed in creating a community that mattered, that meant something. It has been my hope to create a community of care and meaning at Science Leadership, and if we approach that goal, it is because of the teachers and staff and parents and kids who walk that dream and believe in that dream with us every single day.

My parents raised me to believe that our goal in life should be to make the world a better place because we have lived in it. It is, to me, the highest ideal we can reach for. Every day, I get to walk into a school where that belief is shared, and I am a better person for that. Thank you to everyone at SLA who shared yesterday with me and made it so meaningful. Thank you to Gamal Sherif and Marcie Hull for organizing the nomination and for organizing yesterday’s festivities. And thank you to all of the educators who spend their days trying to make the world a better place. I would wish for every teacher to have a day like yesterday, because so many people deserve it.

I want to end this post with the poem that was written and performed by one of our teachers, Matthew Kay. It sums up SLA perfectly, and I was honored to have him read it.

On any given day you’ll catch a teacher

At 6 thirty PM – poring over a project they didn’t

Assign with a kid they don’t teach

in a building long being cleaned

by a crew that’s grown used to

working around last ditch tutoring sessions.

On any given day you’ll catch

A teacher crying cause the lesson

Didn’t quite reach that kid you been

Dying to make speak.

If only they’d value their voice . . .

On any given day – at SLA

You’ll see a meeting run an hour past

Its contract hours cause the problem

Ain’t yet been solved to consensus

And it means something if someone

Ain’t yet on board.

You’ll see arms around shoulders –

Kids feelin’ the love –

so much that

They rush to hug

a teacher that they

just went toe 2 toe with.

Cause there’s something in the way

Mr. or Mrs. Teacher, Security guard, Cafeteria Worker, Engineer,

Secretary, Tech Coordinator, Coach and intern – There’s something in the

way they

Teach, prepare food, fix machines, answer phones, keep us safe

Keep us safe.

There’s something in the way – that the student’s pick up on the

First day. (Or week at the most)

There’s something in the way we do our jobs

That makes the kids not feel like a job.

And it’s not a mystery . . .

It’s an Ethic of Care that flows from

The top down to the staff

To the people who walk past

That’s way more lasting

And I sometimes I ask the kids to

Look at my wall where there’s a question

Who are we when nobody’s watching?

When there’s no conferences. When there’s no

Cameras. When there’s no important-looking people

In powerful suits

standing resolute in the back of our classroom.

Who are we then?

We’re 6:30 AM Practices. We’re 6:30 PM tutoring.

We’re prep periods lost observing

We’re lunches skipped counseling

We’re late night planning

We’re doling out hugs

We’re doing whatever we can to make sure

That the kids leave our classes inspired.

We’re making sure that when we leave

Each day – we’re tired.

That’s who we are when nobody’s watching.

And it’s the silver bullet that I wish

Everyone could see.