At the closing event for school this year, a parent graciously extended a compliment to me on a correspondence I disseminated to mark the end of the year and the transition to next year. The parent indicated that I was a good writer and that I must love to write. I reflected back that I actually was a shy writer and did not think of myself as skilled in that area. This came as a bit of a surprise to the parent. As the dust settled on a busy day of people and events, I revisited our exchange and realized that for me, writing is about feeling compelled to speak, not about the art of writing. I write because there are things I want to say. I want to share the truth as I know it, my experience, my story, my lessons learned and shared in a spirit of connecting and resonating with a larger sense of community. I am motivated by an intense desire to share what I feel about the world of education and the people around me.
As I consider the myriad of people - students, teachers, colleagues and parents - who share their journey with me, I am reminded that being present to each other gives witness to our shared reality. Sometimes, especially when someone reluctantly shares something critical that they think I might not want to hear, I am grateful for the gift of awareness that can only come in such moments. On occasion as a school leader, I speak a truth that propels people into catching up with their own reality – an equally valuable gift of awareness among constituents in a school.
In the meantime, I grow, I learn, I seek and I say what that means to me and listen to what the same means to others in their lives. One of my mantras is “learn - create - share,” and my aim is to help communities of learners to share in information more efficiently and effectively. Blogging for me is about exploring how to use multiple modes of communication and how to become a wiser, simpler communicator. And in the process of reflecting prior to writing on the blog, I often learn about myself and about the situations of which I am a part, even as I garner a clearer understanding and vision of the particular emotion, momentum, or practice about which I am writing. So for me, writing is a process for reflection and expression. Along the way, I trust that there may be something of value for others in what I have to say.
