Reflections on Leadership and Learning

I really enjoy the process of selecting my word of the year. Each year, a word finds me or I find a word that I really need. Some years I need creative energy, some years I need activity and spunk or to be stretched, while other years I need to rest and recharge. I journal through a series of prompts to consider what energy I want to bring into a new year, and what I was to manifest.

• 2025 –> LISTEN
• 2024 –> DELIGHT
• 2023 –> GENTLE
• 2022 –> CONNECTION
• 2021 –> DARING
• 2020 –> GRACE
• 2019 –> SHINE
• 2018 –> POSSIBILITY
• 2017 –> CHALLENGE
• 2016 –> REJUVENATE
• 2015 –> MINDFULNESS

For 2026, I want to continue to build on the healthy habits I began this year, including my meditation practice and my refusal to embrace the culture of “always busy”. I want to embrace a slower, calmer, more purposeful life whenever and wherever I can. I want to feel at ease at home, at work, and on all my travels. This year, I am inviting EASE into my life.

What is your word of 2026?

Tracking my reading brings me so much joy! Not only does it help me remember what I read, and what to recommend to others, but it teaches me about myself each year. This year I learned that I while I still enjoy mysteries and thrillers, they don’t bring me reading fulfillment in the same way that a well-written literary novel of substance does. The stats are always fun to see as well, so here are some stats that summarize my year of reading.

Number of Books Read:

• 2025- 123
• 2024 – 130
• 2023 – 113
• 2022 – 127
• 2021 – 146
• 2020 – 71

Nation of Author’s Origin & Genres:

Fun Facts:

• 46% of what I read was digital, 30% was in print, and 24% was audio
• My top three genres were: Mystery/Thriller (23%), Literary Fiction (14%) and Memoir (12%)
• 78% of what I read I rated 4, 4.5 or 5 stars, with an annual average of 4.1
• 20% of the books I read this year were published in 2025, with 27% published in 2024 and a mix after that, going back to pre-1900!
• I read 75% fiction and 25% nonfiction
• I read 39,857 pages!
• 52% of the books I read included people of other races, ethnicities, languages, and/or abilities than me
• 55% of what I read I checked out from my local public library

Reading Superlatives

• Best Mystery that had me guessing until the very end (and the one I’ve recommended the most this year): After the Crash by Michael Bussi
• Best Backlist Nostalgic Family Saga: The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
• Best Epistolary Novel that packs a punch in the most beautiful way: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
• Best Book about race told in a unique and fascinating way: Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell
• Best Nonfiction book that hits way too close to home for me: They Came for the Schools: One Town’s Fight Over Race and Identity, and the New War for America’s Classrooms by Mike Hixenbaugh

In 2026, I am looking forward to more enjoyable reading experiences, whether I’m reading at home, in a pool, in a plane, or on my daily commute.

I read a number of excellent books again this month. I’m so glad my reading choices have improved this fall, since the first half of this year felt very MEH. This month I read:

• Nothing Can Erase You by Michel Bussi – Last month I read and loved After the Crash by Bussi, so then I went back to his catalog to request more of his books from my library. I enjoyed this thriller almost as much. We meet Maddie and her son Esteban right before Esteban disappears. Maddie spends the next decade trying to figure out what happened to Esteban and having to convince the people around her that she isn’t crazy, especially when she moves to a town just because a young boy named Tom looks just like Esteban (but would be 10 years younger). This was a wild ride of twists and turns with lots of quirky characters.
• Nobody’s Fool by Harlan Coben – I love Harlan Coben’s books and I’m always happy when I rediscover him and find new ones to read. The first book in this series was written in 2016 and I read it then, but didn’t realize the connection until after I finished this, which could be a standalone story. Our main character Kierce, kicked off the police force, is hired to help solve a very old kidnapping case in which he has a surprising connection from the past. Along the way, we learn about Kierce’s family, his past, and the family of the young girl who was kidnapped. There were a variety of twists in this, as well as some information hidden from us as the reader, but I enjoyed the entire ride!
• The Black Wolf by Louise Penny – I love the Three Pines series and everything Louise Penny writes. This book was a continuation of book 19, the Grey Wolf. The message between the books being that there are grey wolves, which are good, and black wolves, which are evil. Armand and his crew stumbled upon a government conspiracy to poison the water in Montreal in book 19, and this book begins with the ramifications of their arrests, injuries, and them doubting whether they truly caught the right black wolf. Penny’s introduction says that she turned in this manuscript in September of 2024 and was shocked to see some of her plot in the news in 2025. What follows is an eery story that feels more like nonfiction than fiction, with connections between Canada and America, with leaders no one can trust, and plot lines reminiscent of Animal Farm and 1984, both of which are quoted a lot. This book SHOOK me. The writing was flawless and the characters were so human it hurt to watch them make mistakes, even as I cheered them on to keep going. This was a PHENOMENAL book, which is incredible when you realize it’s #20 in a long series!
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath – This is my book club’s “classic read” for the year. Since I never read it, I was interested to read it, despite my hesitation with classics. Plath’s writing is very informal in tone and rich in details. The beginning of the book we are on a journey to NYC in the 1950’s with a young woman, Esther, who is selected as part of a magazine scholarship group for summer work and fun. Right away, Esther is different from the other young women in the group and much less interested in the fun they are having. The second part of the book is Esther’s fall into madness, with suicidal ideations long before there was a name for this. The book is dark, sad, and a vivid portrayal of deep depression and the failings of the mental health system back then.
• I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy [audiobook] – When this book first came out, I hated the title and refused to read it on that principle alone. Over time, I heard good things about it from many people, including my cousin, who confirmed that the mother in this memoir is nothing like mine and wouldn’t bring up sad memories for me. Well, she was right about that, but it brought up other feelings. This memoir chronicles the life of a young girl whose imbalanced mother forces her to become an actress, to become anorexic, and other awkward and inappropriate situations that were described through the lens of a young child. The majority of the book was gross to me, espcially as it was told from a child’s point of view, with no reality checks or reflections until the very end of the book. This was a hard memoir to read with not a lot of impactful lessons. I didn’t enjoy the reading experience.
• The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron – I’ve been reading a chapter a week from this book since early September, as part of the Secret Stuff book club with Laura Tremaine. I have also written morning pages and gone on artist dates, two key principles the author outlines in the book. Along the way, she provides concrete actions to take to unblock creativity, leaning into the fun and silliness of childhood and the importance of being disconnected and bored long enough to tap into your own creativity.
• A Killer’s Wife by Victor Methos – This was a quick, fun mystery to read, that is first in a series that is new to me. in this book, we meet Yardley, whose husband, and the father of her teenage daugther, is on death row after being prosecuted for multiple murders. Just when she is moving on with her life, Yardley hit some significant bumps along the way. This story takes place in Las Vegas, in and out of courtrooms and jails, with many dark characters. Though I disliked almost all of the characters, especially most of the men, I enjoyed the fast-paced story and I will look into the rest of the series.
• Animal Farm by George Orwell – I decided to read this very old classic because Louise Penny mentioned it and 1984, also by Orwell, so much in the last Gamache book. I have read 1984, but not Animal Farm, and she used both to illustrate governmental lessons of significance. This is a dystopian tale of a farm where the animals take over, chase off the humans, and create their own society. Everything is peaceful at first, but as the pigs become more powerful (they are the only literate animals on the farm), the rules keep changing, the blame keeps shifting, and the enemies are always responsible. This was written as a dystopian story mocking governmentla overreach, and it is scary how many similarities you can find to today’s political climate. Now we use terms like propoganda and gaslighting, but in Animal Farm, it was the literate pigs changing the commandments of the group. I’m glad I read this.
• Drive Here and Devastate Me by Megan Falley – I bought this poetry book last summer, when Megan’s partner Andrea Gibson passed away after a long battle with cancer. Both Megan and Andrea are gifted poets, and known for their spoken word performances. I just watched the documentary about their love of life, each other and poetry, called Come See Me in the Good Light on Apple TV (must watch!). It was stunningly beautiful and simple and profound. Both of these people are gifted with words and their poetry is gorgeous.
• Fifty Fifty by Steve Cavanaugh – I love this Eddie Flynn series! Eddie is a former con man turned lawyer, who will only defend innocent people.. In this story, he is defening Sofia against the charge of murdering her own father. Her sister Alexandra, is also on trial for the same charge at the same time. We know that one of the sisteres committed the crime, but it seems like we will never figure out the truth. This was a fast-paced court drama that came to an explosive conclusion!
• Journey to Topaz by Yoshiko Uchida – While visiting a 6th grade class with a group of principals, we saw students just beginning to read this middle grade novel. Once one of my principal colleagues told me what it was about, I knew I needed to read it. This beautiful little book tells the story of one Japanese-American family in California and what happened to them, here in the U.S., right after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The father was immediately arrested and interned in Montana, while his family was forced to remain at home with no contact with anyone. Then they were relocated not once, but twice, until they, and all other Japanese families, were taken out of California. It’s a devastating part of American history that is a blib, if even mentioned in some history books. Told from a young girl’s eyes, it’s sweet and innocent and still hard to believe. This is an important story for more Americans to know and understand.
• Sold on a Monday by Kristin McMorris – For some unknown reason, I have owned this e-book on my Kindle for years. I finally got around to reading it and it was a delightful historical fiction story. Set in the Depression era, a young journalist takes a photo of two children with a “children for sale” sign in front of them and stumbles into quite an adventure. The reporter, Ellis, is fighting for his own bylines, while a work friend, Lily, is doing the same but as a woman in a male-dominated field. Both Ellis and Lily have their own secrets that drive them towards success, but they come together to help children in need in this story. It was sad, sweet, fun, and depressing, and I enjoyed it all.
• The Last Beekeeper by Pablo Cartaya [audiobook] – I found this middle grades story through my library, and was so happy to read yet another Climate Fiction story that takes place in the near future. In this traumatic story, humans have killed most living creatures and are trying to make technology the only thing of value for communication and survival. One young girl, Yolanda, is a gifted coder who uncovers family secrets related to the last known bee colony. Soon Yolanda and her friends are on a quest to save humanity from the evil taking over their world.
• The Wasp Trap by Mark Edwards – This book takes place in a very tense dinner party, with flashbacks to a summer in 1999 when all of the dinner party guests lived and worked together on a dating app start-up. We are in the beautiful home of rich Georgina and Theo, and Will, Sophie, and the others are not sure what this reunion is all about. Quickly we learn that everyone has some secrets, some held since that summer in 1999. As bad things happen, we learn that each of these characters is less likeable than we thought. Without giving anything away, I enjoyed the fast-paced action, the twists, and the ending!

I finally read two 5 star books in a row and maybe my best read of 2025! Then I had some more 4+ star reads so this was probably my best reading month of the year. This month I read:

• The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher – After hearing Meredith rave about this old family saga from the 1980’s, which I can picture my mom reading in my childhood, I knew I wanted to read this. This is a beautiful novel, a sweeping family saga that tells the tales of multiple generations living in England in WWII and through the 1980’s. We follow Penelope from her childhood to old age, out of order, but through love and loss and war and dealing with her adult children. I loved her, and her friendships and love of her garden and artwork. I did NOT love her children (Noel and Nancy were awful and Olivia was good, but not great!) and I didn’t enjoy that the author painted Penelope as a very old woman, when she was in her early 60’s! The closer I get to that, the less old it feels. But I did love Penelope’s adventures and how she shared her love with those deserving it. I loved this book!
• After the Crash by Michael Bussi – This is the second 5 start book I read this month, and maybe the best all year! I loved this fast-paced, thrilling story. After a tragic plane crash in the mountains of France, one 3 month old baby is found alive as the sole survivor. The only problem is that there were two families on board the flight with 3 month old babies. The relatives of the deceased parents fight for custody and since this begins in the 1980’s, there are no DNA tests readily available to determine the baby’s identiy. We follow the baby’s life and the dectetive who spends 18 years trying to track down the truth. This was such a great book!
• 107 Days by Kamala Harris [audiobook] – Listening to Kamala Harris tell the story of the 107 days of her campaign for the presidency was beautiful and so depressing. Knowing the election results, it was so hard to hear her hope and all of the hard work her entire team put in, knowing they inherited an uphill battle. It was interesting to hear the way she tried to maintain respect for President Biden, even while hinting that his team shelved her for his entire presidency and didn’t do anything to support her. Kamala repeats a lot of her professional successes in both books; she is proud of her work and it is clear how few people knew all that she has accomplished. This is the second book I’ve read by Kamala and she is intelligent, detail-oriented, wise, mature, and fun. She would have been an incredible president.
• Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More than they Expect by Will Guidara – This nonfiction book primarily about a restaurant’s growth was a Secret Stuff book club pick, and nothing that I would have picked up on my own. However, I did waitress in my MUCH younger years, and I have family who work in the restaurant industry, and I found the entire story to be entertaining, educational, and inspiring, with lessons that go beyond restaurant management. The author, Will, outlines how he came to be the GM of Eleven Madison Park, in NYC, and how he and the new head chef decided to be full partners in the running of the restaurant. It is rare for the front and back of house to work that closely together, but these men forged a parntership intentionally to do something different. They worked incredibly hard to provide what they coined “unreasonable” hospitality, as they worked to gain better reviews, more stars, and to make it on the 50 Best Restaurants in the World list. They were creative, innovative, a bit crazy and wild, and fun! I appreciated when they began to work to make sure that each diner’s experience was unique and personalized, something that we want to do in schools as well, but which takes significant effort, research, time, and human capital. They invested in people and it paid off most of the time. I found this to be a fascinating read.
• The Safari by Jaclyn Goldis – I found this book by chance at my library – I love random serendiptiy! In this story, we meet the Babel family in South Africa, at the luxury safari camp they own. Odelia, the rich mother, is about to marry her much younger, new boyfriend, and her three children are less than pleased about the wedding. Sam and Bailey, twin siblings, who both seem to be less than what their parents hoped they would be as young adults, while their older brother Joshua, is married with a beautiful wife and young baby, and works for the family company. Odelia’s best friend Gwen joins the group for the tense pre-wedding planning. When one of the guests is found murdered, the entire family is busy trying to hide their own secrets while figuring out what everyone else was lying about. This is a fast-paced thriller with so many suspects you have to read the very end to learn all the hidden stories.
• Tilt by Emma Pattee – I heard this book recommended on the Currently Reading podcast and knew I would like it because it’s Climate Fiction, one of my favorite subgenres. We meet Annie, who is 9 months pregnant, while she is buying a crib in IKEA. When THE BIG ONE, as in a Northwest earthquake, strikes, we are with Annie has she travels, on foot, to find her husband. This is a slow, harrowing tale of her journey through disaster, but also her journey to acceptance of motherhood, and her own past grief issues. This was beautifully written and hauntingly readable.
• I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself: One Woman’s Pursuit of Pleasure in Paris by Glynnis MacNicol – I read MacNicol’s first memoir about grief and her mother’s death and really appreciated hearing life stories from a middle-aged woman who never married and never had kids. That part of my life is rarely represented in books so I appreciated it, even though her life is still very different than mine. This memoir is a prime example of that. In August, during COVID, she is able to leave NYC for a month to go life in Paris mainly because she misses human contact and knows the rules of France quarantine are different. She has other single female friends in Paris, she knows the city well, and she jumps into a French dating app and meets a range of men, many much younger than her 46 years of age. Because she is a free-lance writer, she was able to create this alternate life for herself. Because is more confident at her age, she makes no apologies for the joy of sex with strangers and the freedom of no attachements. She also muses a lot on life without a spouse and kids, and so many of those thoughts were wild to see in print, as I’ve had similar thoughts. I enjoyed this glimpse into her life.
• The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze by Derrick Barnes [audiobook] – One of my reader work friends asked me if I read this book because she wanted to talk about it, so of course I had to read it. It was a hard book to read. Henson Blayze is a Black boy in Mississippi, an 8th grader whose entire town, made of mostly white people, is counting on him to help the high school football team finally win a season. The book begins with a graphic scene of two police men beating a young boy, but we don’t know who any of those characters are. Knowing that, I had a pit in my stomach through the entire book, waiting to learn what happened in that scene. The main story begins with Henson’s first day of school, where the entire town greets and cheers him on, ready to see him in action on the football field. Right from the beginning, it was clear to me that the townspeople only cared about his athletic abilities, and not him as a person. The racism is overt at first, and then explicit with significant exaggeration throughout the story. So many scenes were hard to read, as Henson was treated like an adult, but not quite human, by these greedy vicious people. Henson’s father and new friend Frida are the only bright lights in this rough story. I know this book was long-listed for the National Book Award. It is well-written and has a lot of lessons, but I wouldn’t hand it to a middle grades child. The saddest part to me is that my friend was looking for a good book for her middle grades son to read that had a Black boy protagonist and it is very hard to find a good book with a Black main character that does’t involve a lot of trauma and negativity.
• Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman – My friend and I were reminiscing about when we team-taught, and we used excerpts from this book with our middle school students. I hadn’t read the book in over 20 years, so I checked it out of my library for a reread. This is a collection of stories from the point of view of Einstein while contemplating time. In each chapter, something different happens with time: it goes backwards, it hops, it loops, it slows down when you are moving, it slows down the higher your altitude. In the stories, people are often chasing time, trying to capture their own memories, to hold on to their own best moments. It’s fun and whimsical and a great lesson on being present and savoring the here and now.
• Radical Candor: How to get what you want by saying what you mean by Kim Scott [audiobook] – While looking for resources on how to give effective feedback, I stumbled upon a video clip of Kim Scott explaining her radical candor continuum. I loved it so much and I asked my boss if she had read the book. She had read it, and she loaned me her copy to read, which I did in tandem with the audiobook version. I appreciate how Kim shares a variety of stories from her time owning her own business, working at Google, at Apple, and in a variety of environments. I loved the quadrants of the design: ruinous empathy, manipulative insincerity, obnoxious aggression and radical candor. The examples made each quadrant clear from the perspective of giving feedback. Her first lesson for a “boss” is that a boss needs to first ask for feedback on their management before they can begin to build the relationship where they can give effective feedback. But that all bosses need to be giving regular feedback often, which is so important for growth. There were many great lessons to learn about managing people from this book.

The Coach ADVenture: Building Powerful Instructional Leadership Skills that Impact Learning was published 6 years ago today – wow! It’s hard to believe that 7 years ago I was busy writing this book, combing through my blog posts and memories of instructional coaching, to tell the stories of two fictionalized educators learning to be stronger instructional leaders. No matter what position I have held over the last 27 years I’ve been an educator, being a coach feels like my purpose and my role. I love helping someone else be there best self, find the best way through a challenge, or help others in order to help more students LOVE learning.

I still believe in the power of instructional coaching, the importance of providing meaningful and authentic feedback, and the value of site and district leaders spending purposeful time in classrooms, where the incredibly hard and meaningful work of teaching and learning takes place. I still set a goal to visit every classroom in our district every school year. I still write personal messages to every teacher after I visit their classroom. Now, more than ever, teachers deserve so much love, respect, admiration, and support.

The Coach ADVenture: Building Powerful Instructional Leadership Skills that Impact Learning is available for purchase on Amazon (and cheaper than ever!).

This post was inspired by Meg Tietz’s 48 things post. I turned 50 in September and spent a month truly leaning into this milestone. I believe that birthdays should be celebrated for however long you want and this year I wanted a full month of celebrating! Here is a list of 50 things I have loved in my first 50 years:

• My mom, who gifted me my love of laughter, writing, music, and deep friendships
• My dad, from whom I get my organized, early, Type A, reader personality
• My brother, who is my opposite in many ways, my weekly cook, and, luckily, my friend too
• New Kids on the Block
• Learning the lyrics to every song I love, starting from taping songs like Pour Some Sugar on Me and We Didn’t Start the Fire off the radio and writing the lyrics on paper plates
• Skiing with my family all over, and then getting college PE credit on the lamest mountain ever
• Spain (all 5 times I’ve visited or lived there!)
• Africa safaris (don’t make me pick a favorite animal!)
• Galapagos adventures
• Card games – from Oh Hell to Spades to Canasta to Blitz to 99 and more
• Board games – don’t bring up how I used to cheat on Monopoly to my brother (he is still mad!)
• Roller skating
• Snorkeling
• Sunsets
• Sunflowers
• Cats
• My work
• Writing – from letters to blog posts to journals and more, writing is a tool for reflection, for sharing, and staying in touch
• Sea glass – I still remember the snowy day my dad and I collected over 100 pieces!
• Reading
• The Jersey Shore – Yelling “over” or “under” before each wave came with my Mom
• Any beach any time
• FaceTimes with my nephews
• 1:1 dates with my nephews
• Having all 4 of my grandparents alive and well for my entire childhood (and well beyond!)
• Getting closer to my brother as we get older
• Sleeping in
• Early morning workouts
• Peloton bike rides
• Walks at the bay
• Pool reading
• Mojitos and Iced Tea and Gin & Tonic and crushed ice
• Live concerts
• Vacations and traveling
• Coconut – the small, the taste, the tropic islands where they grow
• My hardwood floors
• The day I paid off my mortgage
• Making M.A.S.H. notes in middle school
• The Babysitter’s Club books and Ann M. Martin
• My 80’s jean jacket
• When Harry Met Sally
• Meeting up with our CA cousins every other year at our grandparents’ house in Florida
• The trip to Virginia Beach my other grandparents took me on when I was about 11.
• Strawberry Shortcake dolls and Cabbage Patch Kids
• Watching 90210 and Melrose Place in our college suite and waiting for the next week’s coming attractions with baited breath, to the point of ignoring fire alarms!
• Riding bikes around Coronado, CA with out-of-town visitors
• Playing Fusion Frenzy with friends until our sides ache from all of the laughter
• Reading The Polar Express on Christmas Eve with my father and brother
• The amazing friendships I have made with work colleagues at each of my jobs, and personal friends who are like family now
• Sea turtles (and my tatoos!)

Thank you for indulging my joy as I walked down memory lane for my 50th birthday!