Tag: Resiliency
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Why Choose Leadership?
Weekends are usually when I decompress from my work week as an assistant principal. Like it or not, I ruminate over decisions I made and difficult conversations I had with both students and adults. Yesterday morning, while accompanying my wife to a local supermarket, I kept thinking, “Why would anyone choose to be a leader?”…
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Cow Conundrum | Short Story
The mama cow bellows from the pasture nearby, lined up at the barbed wire fence with her hungry calf and the others. “Bring us some tasty hay,” she calls to the pick-up driving rancher. The other girls join in the chorus: “There’s nothing to eat but prickly weeds and nettles out here.” It’s true. A…
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Life’s Curveballs: Lessons from a Retired Army First Sergeant
A teacher at my school is a retired U.S. Army First Sergeant (1SG), which is one of the highest enlisted ranks. As you would expect, to make 1SG takes considerable leadership ability. Consequently, I like to glean administrative wisdom from this person whenever I can. During a break at one of our back-to-school meetings, I…
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The Art of Perspective: Lessons from a Mural
I drive by it every day on my way to work. It’s a group of cows painted on a building, standing behind a fence. At least that’s what it looks like from the highway. However, today I parked right in front of it, and discovered a different perspective. It’s challenging to make out what these animals…
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The Story Behind the Oklahoma City Memorial Tree
My blogger buddy, Rainer Bantau tagged me “it” again in a recent post about his visit to the Oklahoma City Memorial. Our back-and-forth collaborative project started with a meet up in early October–when he was in OKC for a conference. Over lunch, we both hatched a plan to pick a theme and continue the conversation–from…
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Do What’s Needed
One evening in 1970 something, my family sat down to dinner–all but my oldest brother, who’d just gotten his driver’s license. The phone rang and my mom answered, but something was off. She hardly said anything. After listening for several seconds, she spoke, “Where is he?” My sixteen year old brother had been in a…
Davids Daily Dose 