Why I Tribe.

I was taking a walk on the beach the other day with a good friend who is not an educator. As I was sharing about exciting things coming up in our new school year, she said something that got me thinking. She said, “You are not like other principals.”.

“Yes I am,” I thought.

I am like the other principals who were learning alongside me this week at the MEMSPA Summer Leadership Institute. I am like the principals I vox with on a daily basis across the country. I am like the principals who excitedly attended the National Principals Conference with me in Chicago in July.

I am like the other principals who share great ideas on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, those principals who love it when others take their ideas and make them even better. I am like the other principals who blog to reflect, grow, learn, support, and share.

Are there other principals out there? Ones who are not like us? Principals who are satisfied with the status quo, who judge their success by the lack of complaints, who are just trying to survive their years to retirement, who view conversations with teachers as inconveniences, who solve problems in the quickest way rather than the best way?  I guess they are probably out there, but they are not in my tribe. They are not the people I surround myself with and listen to and learn from every day.

I want to be better every single day. That is why I tribe.