MONDAY MATTERS with Jen Schwanke and Will Parker – Discussing Suffering
Principal Matters: The School Leader's Podcast with William D. ParkerShow Notes
Last week, I ran into an old friend, a retired admin, at the airport. He’s enjoying a new career and some traveling time. As we talked, he told me a quick story of hearing some bad news from his previous district.
He said, “As I was thinking about it, I realized I had this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, and then I remembered, this is what leadership often felt like for me on my hardest days. “The good times were really good,” he said, “But the hard times, I don’t miss…”
This week Jen Schwanke and I explore a conversation prompted by one of her recent newsletter posts: How do leaders, in particular, think about managing the suffering (or trauma) or others? What do leaders do with the weight they carry of managing not just their own stress but also carry the weight of helping others walk through difficult times?
I hope you’ll listen in as Jen and I talk about optimism versus reality, suffering that comes with seasons of life, and the encouragement that you’re not alone. Thank you for listening to our conversation, and we’d love to hear your thoughts as well!
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More from Principal Matters: The School Leader's Podcast with William D. Parker
This week on Monday Matters, Jen Schwanke and I discuss a recent newsletter of Jen’s entitled, “Protect Your Perimeter”. She begins the conversation by stating that “your perimeter” is the space around you that you need to be mentally and emotionally healthy. Educators often mistakenly fall into the mindset that they are an educator first and foremost, when the reality is that you do not benefit from wearing your education hat everywhere. Protecting your perimeter means allowing yourself the space to be someone besides an educator, and it’s important to surround yourself with people who allow you to be that person.
A Quick Note to Listeners:
A few weeks ago, Jen Schwanke and I talked about the term “proflection”. Proflection is a term, coined by Jen, that combines reflection and proactivity. It means reflecting on past experiences in order to make changes to future practices. This week, Jen and I spend some time proflecting about work we have done recently. Jen shares some lessons that she presented at a conference in Louisiana, where she talked about the history of public education and the challenges that school leaders face in today’s educational landscape. I proflect on some lessons that I have been learning in my work in leadership and coaching sessions.