A few months ago, my husband and I had friends over for a Sunday afternoon gathering. Good food, swimming, and even better company were on the menu. As the day turned into evening and things wound down, one of my friends asked me, “Do you ever get the Sunday blues?” Without hesitation, I responded, “No, I love my job.” 

Reflecting on this moment, I realize how lucky I am. So many people in my life don’t feel that love for sleepily hitting the alarm button and getting up on Monday mornings. Don’t get me wrong, I cherish my weekends and the days of summer, where I have no schedule and can move at a slower pace. However, come the end of July, I’ll be craving the structure and the chaos that comes with being a middle school administrator.

Further reflection brings me to a different conclusion. This past year has been the best year I have ever had in administration. Yes, we can examine the data: test scores are up, office referrals are down, but it’s so much more than that. I look forward to going to work every day because of the people I work with. I have never had a team like this. My principal, my AP partner, the office staff, and our counselors are not only amazing at what they do, but they are incredible people I get to laugh with every day. I feel lucky to share space with them. I laugh daily with our incredible teachers, who share a love for students and recognize the craziness of middle school. My school is a special place, worth waking up for, even on the hardest of days.

I still feel a pull, a calling, to do more. I want to finish my career leading a school, implementing all the things I have learned as an AP from this incredible team. I listen to my friends who teach in other schools, and feel compelled to help them implement change. I’m still motivated by a strong sense of purpose and eager to take on whatever comes next.

For now, though, I’m staying put. I love my school, my team, and all of the systems we have built. Of course, things aren’t perfect, and I look forward to working hard to implement positive change where needed, where I am. Because right now, I’m not ready to leave my home, my family. 

In the iconic TV show, The Office, Jim and Pam decide to take mental pictures during the days before and through the moments of their wedding.  Pam says that her aunt told her something neat. “She said everything with the wedding goes by so fast, we should try to take mental pictures of the high points.” They begin to “click” their air cameras when something is worth cherishing. 

It isn’t always easy to stop and realize when a moment is a great moment. I often don’t realize how much a moment can change my attitude or even shape my understanding of the world until after time has passed. 

Last January, I was asked to take over as interim principal of one of our elementary schools in the district. Having never worked at an elementary, I was nervous but excited about the learning opportunity. I knew it was a short gig, so taking a page from Pam and Jim, I decided to bank the moments in my memory that I knew I would miss when I returned to middle school. Each day presented new challenges that often tested my patience and exhausted my toolbox of solutions. But each day, there were moments I will always appreciate and remember.

I will cherish my memory of the 5-year-old sitting in my office in his Yoda sweatshirt, zipped up,  hood on with the ears flapping as he talked. I will cherish the excited faces of the Kindergarteners who introduced me to their newly hatched chicks in their room. I will cherish sitting in the Autism class and playing with kinetic sand to help calm a frustrated child. I will even cherish the time my de-escalation techniques failed and a three-foot-tall TK student punched me in the face. I will cherish all the mental pictures of helping open packages during lunch, watching 4th graders race solar cars, hearing my name excitedly across the campus, and the endless hugs from happy and even frustrated children. 

I have so many mental pictures of moments spent with the staff as well, too many to even list. People who love kids and choose to take on challenges are amazing humans and should be prized daily. They are my people, and I am grateful for the moments I have shared and continue to share with them each day.

This year my goal is to be purposeful in recognizing the high points as they happen and taking those mental pictures.  I am hoping to collect and reflect on those pictures each day. Just like Jim and Pam’s wedding, through the challenges, there are so many high points to appreciate. So don’t be surprised if you see me hold my hands up and click my air camera. Know that at that moment there is something to be remembered and cherished.

As 2023 comes to a close, I find myself in a bittersweet moment of my life. I have been asked to fill in as an interim principal at an amazing elementary school in my district for the remainder of the school year. While I am humbled, honored, anxious, and seriously excited, leaving students and staff of my current school is not easy. In fact, it’s really hard. The past four and a half years have been the most rewarding of my career. Being an assistant principal of a middle school before, during, and especially after COVID restrictions presented experiences no one ever would have imagined. The books we could write! While it was hard, it was the best job I had ever had. Mostly because I was able to navigate the storms with some of the best people around. My team of educators and support staff made every day fun and rewarding. I am a true believer that you can do anything if you have the right people by your side. While my future is unwritten after June, I need to say goodbye to these incredible humans for now.

Eich Fam,

I will try to get through the day without crying too much, but I wanted to send a “Shout Out” to all of you.

I started at Eich in Fall 2019. That eighth-grade class taught me patience, how to write up suspensions correctly in PowerSchool, and how to love a student even when he breaks your heart. Then all of a sudden, it was March and we were home, trying to get kids to engage on Zoom, all while making tons of videos. (Remember all the videos? Darren missed his calling).

We made it through mask mandates, social distancing, mask protests, and learning loss. (Well, we’re still working on that last one). We have slowly made our way back to this “normal” with our village furnishing students with endless amounts of grace and understanding. Oh, and kindness. Always kindness.

Through all of it, you guys have been my family. You have kept the laughter flowing and the love for students growing. You have taught me to believe in myself, reflect on my shortcomings, persevere, and improve. I owe each of you so much. I could not have asked for a better group of people on this crazy middle school journey. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

So, cheers to some of the greatest years of my life! My Eich family has made it worth every moment!

Much love,

Kristina xoxo

Cheers to the past four and a half years and to a new beginning this January. The best thing about making friends at work is they can still be friends outside of work!

Recently, I was asked what I thought were my highs and lows of this school year. Taking a moment, I realized for someone who is normally reflective and contemplative, I had not even given myself the chance this year to do either. It seems that this year was more like driving a bus at high speeds, on fire, with its wheels falling off. No time to stop and think. No time to breathe. It was truly the hardest year of my 18 years in education. I know I am not alone in this. Please. Hug a teacher and anyone who works in schools. Just ask the custodians about the side effects of this year. Flying carrots, bags and packaged food debris, and the amount of food waste, made for extra messy campuses. But I digress.

I was able to quickly find my low. It was the only time where I felt it. I internalized it all. It was the only moment that I knew I could do nothing to help my teachers and students. It was the week of the mask protests. What started as five to eight kids in the library, quickly started to gain momentum. My admin team, counselors and I were taking turns trying to provide students with the curriculum. We were talking to our parents, trying to not make enemies of our families. Many of those conversations were not pleasant, with so many people filled with emotion. Yet, this was not our fight. We only wanted what was best for all children, while following the direction of the state. By day three we had over 50 protestors and by day five a quarter of our school was showing up in the multi-purpose room, ready to join. A few were truly protesting, but as these things go, many saw it as a way to hang out with their friends and not go to class. There was little learning happening that week. It was truly the most frustrating and lowest moment of the year.

Nonetheless, I will always remember the highs. These are too many to list, for sure. I can assure you that most include my admin team and counselors, as does the one that stands at the forefront. My biggest success this year was standing at promotion and looking out at so many faces of kids who grew academically and emotionally this year. In August, we had a fight on the second day of school. The second day! And it didn’t stop there. From fighting, to “Devious Licks” vandalism, to foul language and bullying, there were a lot of students who sat in my office, along with my partner’s, and my principal’s office. A lot. There were a lot of parent meetings. A lot of meetings with students and teachers. A lot of counselor referrals. A lot of tears were shed, parents and students alike. My partner and I learned more about restorative practices this school year than I learned during the last five years. We were fixing those bus tires while the bus was on fire and still moving. We began to get very creative with our thinking. We had students work with our Functional Skills classes, gaining empathy and responsibility. We had students research the history of words and apologize to other students that were hurt. There were days and months of students watching videos, reflecting, responding, and apologizing. For many students, appropriate behavior became their most important subject in school.

Our teachers were putting in overtime, too. Working with students to build relationships, reteaching expectations, and simply not giving up on kids. I must add as well that we have two new, phenomenal counselors on my site. In my career, I have never seen two people work as hard as those counselors did this year. (I keep telling them that it isn’t always like this!) The efforts we made with students were immense. I am so proud of the work we put in, the creative thinking involved and the commitment my staff had to meet the needs of every student.

I am so grateful for the work this year and the knowledge that resulted from all that work. Of course, I am looking forward to a smoother year, a year where the bus is already in good shape, and we just need to add gas. Although, if the bus happens to break down, I am not concerned. We have the tools ready to work on it!