You know how they say that you shouldn't ask a question unless you want to hear the answer? I experienced this little reminder earlier this week when discussing a possible theme for my campus for this coming school year. I was pretty excited because I had identified a pop culture reference that I (mostly) understand and that I thought would be fun and relevant for learners. And maybe it's because I'm the new principal, but it also seemed that the facilitators I was working with could get behind it and they even contributed to fleshing out the catch phrase of "Gotta Reach 'Em All" (shout out to Brandy Osterberger for the particular word of reach). So feeling pretty proud of myself, I reached out to our counselor to get feedback from the learners on what they thought of the theme and how we could use it in the school.
And... the first piece of feedback I got completely devastated my theme. I'm gonna admit, I was pretty sad there for a minute. You never want something that you feel great about and maybe even love, to not be loved by others. Over time, the feedback was positive, negative, corrective, and neutral. From this experience I learned a couple of valuable things:
- Sometimes you gotta slow your roll. It's great to be excited about something but it is equally great to vet your ideas and make sure they can stand the test of the moment.
- When you represent a school, you represent all of it. How you represent the school is just as important to you as it is to everyone else. If there happen to be any learners, parents, or facilitators reading this, I just want you to know that I know it. We're going to reach 'em all!
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