Awesome will not come find you. Awesome does not seek recognition. Awesome happens every day in thousands of places and millions of lives.
Awesome can be in a bumblebee flying despite all the rules of physics saying it Can’t. Awesome can be the tide moving hundreds of pounds of rock and wood in a river. Awesome can be someone returning a grocery store buggy to the front of the store even though it wasn’t theirs. Awesome can be a text to someone who was in the mire of loneliness. Awesome can be a favorite song coming on the radio right when you turn it on. Awesome, in short, is a a case of perspective intersecting with timing.
In our classrooms, awesome often comes by design, but it is still dependent on perspective and timing.
If a teacher has forged good relationships with students, the perspective is already there. People want to see abd feel what excites those about whom they care, so relationships are key.
Timing is up to the teacher. Teaching is, if nothing else, performance (with embedded learning, of course). A good performance is all about timing.
While awesome can exist in minor everyday events, it’s the job of a teacher to manufacture such events in the lives of students.
For school leaders, it’s our job to seek out and celebrate those moments of awesome. Notice that phrase: seek out.
What awesome won’t do, remember, is seek recognition or seek us out. We must find it. Then, we must celebrate it.
Don’t sit in your office and await awesome, go find it and celebrate it. Tell the world your school is one where awesome is present, is shared, and is celebrated.
Go be awesome and, every bit as importantly, find and celebrate the awesome around you!
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