Here is a little slide show of me in one of my ‘roles of a principal‘: Ball-retriever.

Before I got into administration, my good friend Dave Sands always used to say, “Being an elementary school principal is like being a rock star in a boy-band“… I got the first taste of that two weeks into being here at my school in China. Our intermediate boys always play soccer in the back corner of our playground and will often, accidentally, kick their soccer ball up over a large wall or on a nearby ledge. Usually they would have to wait until one of the school guard’s were available to retrieve the ball, but I decided that day that I’d just climb up and get it myself.

Well it didn’t take long before students would come to me first before the guard, as I spent almost every lunch period on the playground. And the ‘rock-star’ status began on that first effort when 1/2 the playground were chanting “Mr. Truss” while I was up on the wall being chief ball-retriever. I actually had to threaten not to go up anymore if they kept that up, as I found it rather embarrassing.

Today, the last day of school, I performed this duty one last time. It won’t happen again since our school is changing locations next year. So, in memory of this special role I played, I had my wife take a few photos of the occasion.

It’s a bitter-sweet time of year. As much as I look forward to summer, I always want a week more to do/say all that ‘should-have’ or rather ‘could-have’ been done and said. And the end of a school year brings so many ‘one last times’ to the forefront of our minds. This wasn’t a huge thing, but the fact that so many of my ‘lasts’ here at the school are fond things, I feel great about the year that has passed and I’m excited too about the year ahead.

To all the students, staff and parents at our school, I’d like to say one last time…
Thank you for playing your part in making this year a great year!

This was sent to me by a good friend and mentor, (and a leader in his district). It refers to news about my school moving to a BYO Laptop program. The humour in it is that he lives in Canada and I’m in China… beyond that it speaks volumes about how important school level leadership is in creating a current, meaningful, learning environment in a school.

Dear Mr. Truss,
I was pleased to see your inclusion of a laptop project for the school. This is in direct contrast to my children’s current school where the principal has announced “that there will be no technology between 8:30 and 3:30 without the direct supervision of a teacher.”

May I ask what I need to do to have my 3 lovely children attend your School?

I’ve talked about this kind of ‘miss-management’ before and it has certainly made the news recently. If we want our children to grow up prepared to live in the current media scape, we need to start with school level leadership living and breathing in that same media scape.

I’m confident that my friend will be asking his children’s principal about this decision. He is a leader that recognizes that ‘we’ need to deconstruct old notions and construct schools that foster learning in the digital age for the sake of ‘our’ students.

(You probably won’t find these in a job description, though you should!)

- Hand-holder

- Zipper-fixer

- Tear-wiper

- Peace-maker

- Pants-buttoner

- Ball-retriever

- Nose-wiper

- First-aider

- Firm-talker

- Cheer-leader

- Toy-mender

- Toy-confiscator

- Mouth-wiper

- Rule-implementer

- Ice-provider

- Argument-settler

- Wrapper-opener

- Photo-taker

- Hallway-monitor

- Coat-zipper

- Skip-rope-holder

- Eat-your-vegetables-inflictor

- Band-Aid-administer

- Complaint-listener

- High-fiver

- Story-teller

- News-breaker

- Crime-solver

- Item-finder

- Dress-code-imposer

- Hand-shaker

- Parent-caller

- Skip-rope-detangler

- Confidence-builder

- Shoelace-tier

And finally, a personal ‘favourite’ (my office door faces the Pre-K to Grade 2 boys bathroom…)

- After-you-go-to-the-bathroom-please-make-sure-you-wash-your-hands…with-soap-enforcer.

———-

Ps. I wrote this over about two weeks, the Pre-K to Grade 2 teachers could double this list in a single day! The number one item at the top of this list should be:

- Teacher-appreciator!