I had been putting off my Ah-Hah! moment post for a while because I wasn’t sure which of the million moments to write about, but the past few days have given the words to me.

I was going into this school year so excited about all the possibilities for further change at my school. We as a school have been working so hard during the past few years to make our school truly great: academic strength, high expectations, a responsible student body, and teachers and administrators who respect each other and band together in the face of adversity. And it works! Today I saw the data that showed my school’s composite EOC scores have gone up over TWENTY PERCENT in the past five years (which is, not coincidentally, the exact amount of time our principal has been at our school….). And all that’s WITHOUT one bit of prescribed curriculum and WITH complete respect for us teachers. 

And then, two evenings ago, he sent us an e-mail: he is leaving our school and moving up to a position at the county level. Since every staffer loves him just as much as I do, we have been absolutely devastated. Our school completely turned around when he came, and I think the announcement brought forth fears that it would go back to the way it was before he walked through the door. I got texts and e-mails of sadness and disappointment all night from my colleagues.

The morning after this announcement was made was when Vicky and I had to do our presentation about the Kenan Fellows program. Both of our hearts were heavy and we didn’t know how it would go. How could we be cheerleaders about this program during this time?

We presented. And we were cheerleaders. And talked about how we could use the fellowship to enact change. And guess what? I think the staff found it interesting. Vicky described the benefits of the fellowship and why our teachers should get involved, and I proposed to form a cohort of teachers from our school to take the Seize the Data class we learned about this summer.

Since then, several teachers have come to ask me about how they can apply to be a Kenan Fellow. And several more have asked to be part of the data class cohort, which is more than I expected! 

So I guess this is the Ah Hah! moment I’ve experienced transitioning from the summer externship back to school life. Sometimes we feel like we can’t make significant changes from our position as classroom teachers: that we have to be promoted into other levels of education, or rely on other higher-ups to do it for us. Our principal has been wonderful, and good school leadership is essential, but teachers supporting each other and being willing and able to speak up for ourselves is essential too. The Kenan Fellowship helps teachers see that this is possible, which is probably a huge reason as to why 95% of Kenan Fellow alumni stay in education.

How cool is it that, through a brief presentation, Vicky and I were able to spread a little of that around during a tough time.

Well, anyway, to all the awesome Kenan Fellows:

Credit: Nestle Corp.