New Kid in Class

The third installment of the NC Ed Leaders Summer Blog Series comes from Lora Tiano, principal of Kernersville Elementary School in Kernersville, North Carolina. Lora and I worked together at Glenn High School when I was just starting my teaching career and she was serving as the school's curriculum coordinator. She was always very supportive, organized, and energetic, so I was not surprised at all when she was named an assistant principal at Glenn in 2013. Lora just finished her first year as principal of Kernersville Elementary this past year, and her blog post below reflects on how she worked to build a positive school culture that focused on putting kids at the forefront. Lora is as authentic and genuine as they come and her blog post below speaks from the heart, reflecting on all of the difficult challenges and heart-warming victories that accompany the principalship. Enjoy!

I’m new…at least not too many months ago, I was. Somehow, it still feels new, but it also feels like I have been here so long. I think that in the sacred time spent in the whirlwind of education the years fly by and the days last forever. The risk of the new and unknown was terrifying. But the very best things come in disguise as challenges and impossibilities. In the newness, I also found renewed purpose.

I found children who need more and have faced more than I could have ever imagined. I found children who need to know unconditional love, but also high expectations. I found little faces looking up at me with blind faith that they’ll be taken care of on my watch and others who have never been able to trust in anyone. Then, I found “big people” who I’ve stepped in alongside that have open arms and steady shoulders.

I left two decades of people I worked beside who taught me something every day…and I miss them. But I found more people here…and it reminded me that the good news is there is no shortage of people who love and teach kids with all their hearts and uncanny strength every day.

I found new student advocates who need me in their corner for support because the world doesn’t appreciate the challenge at hand…people who may have spent an entire lifetime or only a rookie year answering the call to serve the most important people in the world…our children.

I found people who truly believe these are our children and do all in their power daily to build confidence, skills, and character…that build up little ones, so when they’re the big ones, they’ve known love that:

§  holds accountability in as high regard as it holds hugs

§  tells a child in word and deed, “I will do all I can to clear a path for you to find your best self”

§  says, “The world already has one of her. It needs the only you, at your best, to be complete.”

§  clears those paths strewn with abuse and neglect, low expectation, poverty, racism, closed-mindedness, entitlement, discrimination, and self-centeredness…and all of their effects

§  finds a way around those obstacles and builds up when the world tears down.

Administrators drastically affect school culture for the staff and students entrusted to us.  But it’s more than throwing catch-phrases around in educational circles. It’s getting your head out of the sand and looking at the culture that has shaped our students outside of the school’s walls and teachers’ reach.

It’s taking it in and taking it on…knowing the battle you’re fighting and working like crazy to empower people around you to overcome it all for every little soul who crosses the threshold.  Let the “big people” know beyond the shadow of a doubt that they’re safe to try, secure in taking chances, and that you love, support, and care for them as people too. Then together you work on behalf of those who haven’t yet learned to fight for themselves. Eventually, you can grow them to do just that!

It will cause you to work with an urgency…a fire in your belly for your kids (who do desperately want to read and write, understand science and math) to break away from the world’s limitations. The culture in our schools must be safe and provide opportunities for all of our children to dream of things that are beyond even our imaginations. School has to be a place where their parents’ paycheck, their skin color, and their address doesn’t limit their pursuits or potential.

My take on school culture is simple: For every conversation (even in the lounge), every decision and action, every lesson plan and activity, ask yourself (whether you’re a teacher, assistant, AP, principal):

§  Is this going to grow my kids?

§  Is it best for them or just easier for us?

§  Is it helping or hurting the potential of our school to build up kids?

If you can’t reflect and say it was all done for the purpose of growing children, your priorities are out of sync.

I’m still new at this principal thing. I was brand new 12 unbelievably short and gruelingly long months ago. But I’ve been reminded that the Lord truly does perfect work. So much so that my 26 years of working with my teenagers is exactly what prepared me to work with my “little ones.” Go figure, right?

I can look into a 5-year old baby face and a 7-year old toothless grin and see down the path to:

§  the worn down, jaded 15-year old already throwing in the towel because he’s never known school “culture” that pushes him in love… OR

§  the built-up, towering 17-year old ready to move on because he’s known school “culture” that takes risks and believes he’s worth it and that the world needs what only he can offer.

Create a culture in which your staff are safe to take risks and make plans that grow kids, even if it goes against the grain…and especially if you need to stand beside them in the line of fire if it doesn’t go so well. Create a culture that gives them a balance of freedom and structure, but always begs the question, “Is this what we believe will grow our kids into their best selves?”

When your head hits the pillow (if you ever get there), sleep comes more easily in the peace that your kids are your first priority and your staff are supported and expected to do whatever it takes to grow them into the very best version of themselves.

Sleep tight!

Lora Tiano is the principal of Kernersville Elementary School in Kernersville, North Carolina.