Too much of a good thing

Wow! How exhausting is Twitter and the edu blog world. I'm reading so much incredible information and it's all so relevant and cutting edge. The opinions are thoughtful and they are provoking a lot of reflection from me and helping me drive my school and my own journey forward. I have the privilege to get to work in an amazing school with some amazing colleagues. Resilience and empathy are awash in the school and its this that makes the difference as we help our young people with their SEMH difficulties. We are all learning and it's refreshing to know that my colleagues embrace so much of what we are trying to achieve at the school for the young people. 

The pace of change is key to its effectiveness regadless of what that change is, but there's so much excellent practice out there that we need to manipulate our own teaching to absorb what's out there and then make the alterations. 

I need to learn to understand my own context better in order to filter better the information. This all takes time and we're already playing catch up so the challenge for me is immense. Consolidating what we have built already is also a challenge with new students filtering in to the school. Stability and EBD schools are not always synonymous but that's the aim. There are awesome days of course but it's hard at every level, draining and satisfying every day not always in equal measure.

I guess this is a bit of a ramble but it's a feeling given several hours reading and several years driving a school. Teaching and leading in schools is an exhausting way to make a living but it is of course more than that. Becoming the best you can be is the driver for many and for me it's no exception. Have I got the energy is the reflective question this evening. Read, absorb, evaluate,grow and tire. Three more weeks until the Christmas holidays and it's the hardest three in an EBD school. There's not a lot to look forward to for our students. Trying to shift that mindset is hard but we'll give it a good go. One young man has just had some reviews on LMYL so maybe that might be a game changer for him. I'll let you know.