Advisory board
Building relationships a joy--and a duty
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Letter from the staff: holiday spirits on the rise
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Thirty-one years ago, my life changed.
In January, 1987, I was a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an accounting major. During semester break, I spent a week with my older sister, who was teaching middle school language arts in tiny Suring, Wis. I accompanied her to school and hung out in her classroom. I observed how she taught and re- lated to her students and colleagues. I did a bit of teaching. I could do this, I thought. It was fun. The students were interesting. The content was engaging. Working with the students energized me. When I returned to campus, I changed my major to secondary education. Three years later, degree in hand, I started my job search, and in 1991, Craig hired me. My career has had ups and downs, but it has been an overwhelmingly positive experience. I am blessed to work in a strong school district with wonderful educators, interest- ing and (for the most part) en- gaged students, and supportive families. And over the years, I have learned that building relation- ships is the greatest joy and most important duty of any educator. We all want our students to learn and grow and critically think and gain skills. But our first priority should be to communicate that we care about them. I am not alone in this pursuit. All of my colleagues at Craig strive to do the same. That’s why we have Circles of Support. That’s why we have clubs and sports and activities. That’s why teachers arrive early and stay late. That’s why my colleagues and I write countless letters of recommendation for students. That’s why every teacher will put aside whatever he or she is doing to help a student in need. Every day I see teachers, counselors, administrators and other staff talking to students one-on-one, counseling them, guiding them, helping them and sometimes redirecting them. In other words, I see a team of caring adults who are build- ing relationships. A well-worn adage of teach- ing is, “Kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” This adage has been adopted by our school district. Our new superintendent, Mr. Steve Pofahl, has adopted several “promises” that our school district will strive to meet and which will guide our work. One of these promises is that “every student will be known by name, strength, and need by at least one adult.” Judging by the work I see us doing every day, I know we have realized this promise. Or at least we are close. This promise is one of the reasons I decided to be a teacher and why I have stayed with it for more than 27 years. I want to give students condence in their abilities and positive feelings towards learning. I hope to inspire them to strive for a future where they continue their educations. My ultimate motivation is to build on the legacy of teachers who guided me. If it wasn’t for the care and attention of teachers like Mr. Griswold, Ms. Onesti, Mrs. Giovetti, and Mr. McGill, and the model provided by my sister, I might not have become an educator. Not only did they know their content and teach it well, but they related to students as people, which inspired me to see relationships as the corner- stone of effective teaching. Our school district believes this as well, and the result is a caring, engaged, and involved group of teachers. Best wishes to all of you for a restful and blessed winter break! |
The holiday season is known for obvious reasons, like the celebration of things like Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year’s, Three Kings day, or whatever else you may celebrate.
However, no matter what things it may be that you celebrate, there is no denying that the winter season, in all its magic, has a way of bringing out the best in people. It makes people just a little more festive, merry, charitable, and giving than any other time of the year. It’s really one of the only times that people desperately want to do something to change the world and make it better. Now I don’t say that as an insult, but out of human nature. We’ve all done it, decided to look out for ourselves instead of taking a minute out of our day to help someone else, because in an ever moving world we are always on the move and can’t and it in us to just stop and wait a minute. After all there’s so much left to do. We have to get to our next class or meeting, go to a party or a friend’s house, go out shopping to buy the perfect gift, or just on our phones; sucked into things like media and the things that go along with it. However, during this time of the year, we finally put that all aside and become our best selves, people we should be all year long but would take to much time and effort away from more “important” things. This is the time of the year to make things right, but then be- ing right apparently only lasts a month, a week, a day. Either way, it doesn’t seem to last, no matter how many New Year’s resolutions we make. But the problem is that we don’t just have to make this a yearly thing, something we only do on a blue moon. Kindness is free, and sharing it with others only spreads more, until you too are receiving it once more. There is no reason to have to make it a new year resolution if we are just a little more kind, charitable, festive, and helpful every day of the year multiple times a day. We can all be better people if we just want it hard enough. Find another excuse other than the winter season. Take, for instance, the famous words of Bill Murray in his movie Scrooged: “That happened because it’s Christmas Eve. I’m not crazy. It’s Christmas Eve. It’s the one night when we all act a little nicer. We...we smile a little easier. We...we...share a little more. For a couple of hours we are the people we always hoped we would be. It’s really a miracle be- cause it happens every Christmas Eve. And if you waste that miracle, you’re gonna burn for it. I know! You have to do something. You have to take a chance and get involved!” So maybe we can all take this holiday season with a grain of salt, and all try to be a little better and continue on with our holiday spirit all year long. |