cc licensed flickr photo shared by iwona_kellie

Tonight I had the opportunity to co-present with Lesley Cameron, a teacher at my school (if you are on Twitter, follow her) about “Connecting and Sharing“.  Earlier in the year, I, with many others, was inspired by the following video:

When I watched it tonight, I sat back and thought about how we are now achieving so many of the things that were shown in this video, and how in one short year, our practice has paralleled many of the changes in society.  I felt like a proud dad.  I am so proud of our teachers, students, and community.  We have all grown so much together.

Although this growth has been amazing, I think back to some words of wisdom our superintendent imparted to us last week at our administrator retreat.  Paraphrasing, he said the following:

I really believe in innovation and moving forward but we need to ensure that we really respect the gifts and talents that our staff already impart to us everyday.  It is essential that we respect many of our past practices that will continue to ensure the success of our students.

Those words have stuck in my mind since I have heard them.  Our teachers this year have been very successful being innovative, taking, risks, and trying some amazing things.  They have this opportunity because they are already gifted and talented in creating strong relationships with community.

Organizations do not grow without a solid foundation.  Although I am happy to see our learning community continue to implement innovative practices into the classroom, I am more committed to recognizing the strong base that our teachers have already created that allows us to do so.

Through talk of change and growth, as school administrators, we must all remember (this especially includes myself) to recognize the gifts our staff already have. Before we can truly ascend to great heights, we must first respect the foundation.