It’s hard to believe that 2025 is halfway over already, but here we are. My word of the year is LISTEN and boy have I been listening a lot. In my work, our team sought out feedback from students, staff, and families in a number of ways for a variety of purposes and initiatives. At many points we felt like we were drowning in feedback, which can be exhausting. However, reading through and analyzing all of that felt like some of my most important listening work this year. I never want to be a leader who makes decisions in isolation, or who does things TO people instead of WITH people. That is why listening to the feedback we received mattered to me. After sharing how we used that feedback to make changes for next year, I was so happy to receive many positive notes of gratitude for the fact that we heard what people needed and took action to support them. I am proud of our team and our listening this spring.

Rereading my January post about what kind of listening I wanted to do this year was enlightening. While I have done a lot of listening to my body, music, books, and podcasts, I haven’t done enough in nature. And what struck me the most while reading my own list was the fact that what I feel like I’ve spent a lot of time on was listening to the squeaky wheels; the loud, vocal minority who is shouting into the void, or directly at my face, seem to be taking up a lot of air time. While I am open to critiques and concerns, I am not willing to let some voices drown out or shout down all of the incredible work we accomplished this year. This is a reminder to myself to listen as much to what is not said, and to listen for the cheerleaders whispering as well.

During our principal institute at the end of this school year, our amazing superintendent (Hi A!) had us each write a 10-sentence story about our year. One of the prompts was to thank someone who helped you get through the year. I was humbled and honored to have not one, but four of our leaders thank me for supporting them this year. I managed to hold back my tears all the way through the activity, until I was the last person to read my story and then they flooded out! Listening to praise and gratitude is sometimes hard but always rewarding and so deeply meaningful. And during our final activity together, I will always remember all of the laughter I heard in the room. You know you have “found your people” (as one of our principals said) when you can laugh until people are snorting and doubled over crying with laughter, even after one of the most challenging and yet rewarding schools years of my career, in one of the toughest years of my life.

I’m looking forward to listening to the people and ideas that inspire me, that help me create and challenge me to be a better human on this planet.