Summary: Recently I was speaking to school leaders at Okaloosa County Schools’ Summer Leadership Academy in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. <br> I decided to combine my travels there with an opportunity for my family to stay at the beach. My wife and I loaded up all four kids in a Dodge Caravan, and we hit the road. We had a lot of fun putting our toes in the sand, playing in the waves, and just being together.<br> It takes 13 hours to reach Ft. Walton Beach from our town in Oklahoma. So we also had lots of time for thought, reflection, music and podcasts. We also had much to talk about as a family. My children have always known their dad as either a teacher or school administrator. And this past week after I made the announcement that I will be the new <a href="https://www.ccosa.org" target="_blank">Executive Director for OASSP and OMLEA</a>, there were lots of conversations about how the new job may affect our lives and schedules. <br> Looking at Lessons from the Past<br> As excited as I am about the ability to connect with principals across the state in support, professional development and advocacy, I’m also a little nervous as I think about moving away from the familiar. Leaving my school after ten years is bittersweet. My second daughter, Mattie, is still a junior at Skiatook High School. And after a decade of serving as both assistant principal and principal there, I have developed many meaningful relationships.<br> On the flip side, I am glad to have been a part of a school I still love. Sometimes you see leaders stay in positions longer than they should. Whether it is because they lose the fire and passion for their work or they are simply wearied from the journey, we all run the risk of losing sight of the purpose in our work that keeps us positively motivated.<br> This morning as I was enjoying a run down the trails near Skiatook, I was thinking back to the last twenty-four years I have served in schools. It’s crazy to think that half my career was in the classroom, and half working from the principal’s office. I tried to think about the number of times I have managed discipline scenarios with students or the number of teacher observations, evaluations, meetings, interventions, or parent conferences I managed. <br> I remembered the number of evening games, events, concerts, activities, homecomings, and dances I supervised. And then there are the countless state reports, federal surveys, accreditation documents, budget requests, and paperwork for personnel requests. <br> Just for fun, I did some quick math. On a slow day during my years as an assistant principal, for instance, I may have managed fifteen to twenty discipline scenarios a day. Over ten school years, that is somewhere between 27,000 to 30,000 student discipline assignments. Just student discipline alone requires a lot of conversations, parent phone calls, negotiations, and follow-up conversations with teachers. <br> Of course, our duties as school leaders include more than discipline. Our plates are always full of options. Just like me, I’m sure you have also been told by others, “I could never do your job.” Whether or not that is true, I like to remember that just as exercising for the first time causes you temporary pain, doing new work can be hard at first until you train your mental and emotional muscles for the lifting and stretching. Over time, you find that the day-to-day interactions became easier to manage.<br> At the same time, no matter how much experience you have, you also never stop being challenged or needing to grow.<br> 3 Takeaways for Your Own Journey<br> As I look toward my new responsibilities, I wanted to share some essential lessons from my twenty-four years that I want to take with me. And as you think about the year you are preparing to face, here are some takeaways from my own experience that may help you too:<br> 1. Never stop looking for ways to keep growing.<br> We all need coaching.
