This week, I’m thinking about taking care of myself while preparing for the new school year. It’s late February, and the ramp-up for the new school year is here. Meetings, quick chats, emails, and video conferences fill the calendars of many school leaders this time of year, not to mention the very sudden increase in conferences filled with pitches from every company under the sun.
When this happens, I try to remain grounded and keep doing the things I know will apply a little salve to my soul.
As such, here are 10 quotes this week to give you something to think about, something to comfort you, or something to inspire you.
10 Things Worth Sharing
- “Truly clever things are said with short words. Long ones are used to hide stupidity.” (Joe Abercrombie, A Little Hatred)
- “Evidence of a traditional professional learning model: Decreased teacher attendance on in-service days. The experience is fully planned by the administration in a top-down approach, with little to no teacher involvement. The experience is designed with a one-size-fits-all approach. A mass exodus occurs when the required time is up. There is little opportunity for teacher feedback on the experience. Professional learning is viewed as a set number of hours or calendar days per year. Accountability is measured in hours—not in progress or outcomes over time. Supervision conversations focus on experiences attended and hours earned—not on the transformation of instructional pedagogy. Professional learning is viewed solely as a district responsibility.” (Eric C. Sheninger, Thomas C. Murray, Learning Transformed)
- “We don’t need to get rid of all our possessions, but we should constantly question what we own, why we own it, and whether we could do without.” (Ryan Holiday, Stillness Is the Key)
- “My greatest successes came from decisions I made when I stopped thinking and simply did what felt right. Even if there was no good explanation for what I did.” (Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind)
- “In your whole life nobody has ever abused you more than you have abused yourself.” (Don Miguel Ruiz, Janet Mills, The Four Agreements)
- “Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.” (James Clear, Atomic Habits)
- “Games make us happy because they are hard work that we choose for ourselves, and it turns out that almost nothing makes us happier than good, hard work.” (Jane McGonigal, Reality Is Broken)
- “No matter how good you were, someone was better. Live by that knowledge, and you would never grow so confident that you became sloppy.” (Brandon Sanderson, The Emperor’s Soul)
- “The key to developing a deep work habit is to move beyond good intentions and add routines and rituals to your working life designed to minimize the amount of your limited willpower necessary to transition into and maintain a state of unbroken concentration.” (Cal Newport, Deep Work)
- “Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.” (Steven Pressfield, The War of Art)
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