I was a principal in my office … and I made a phone call that I will not soon forget. I had to end the conversation quickly.
I had set a goal of making 100 positive phone calls home by the 100th day of school. I was a daunting challenge, but I thought my staff could help me. So I asked my teachers to let me know when they had a student they wanted to brag on. I didn’t know how this would go.
One day a teacher emailed me about a student she was proud of. This particular student was always coming to class unprepared. The teacher and student had a "heart to heart" conversation, and since then, the student had been bringing her pencil to class everyday.
Coming to class prepared is important. I get it. And it can certainly be aggravating to a teacher always to be loaning pencils.
But I'll admit, I was a bit reluctant to call mom about something as petty as bringing a pencil to class.
In my head, I knew it was important to trust the judgment of my teacher, so even though I didn’t think this was a big deal,I called the student down to my office to give her a high five and praise her.
And then I called her mom.
I told her how proud her daughter's teacher was of her for bringing a pencil every day.
The mom started crying. Through her tears, she said, "My daughter struggles in school. Thank you so much for telling me this." I had to end the conversation quickly because I didn't want to start crying in front of our sixth grader. I hung up the phone, and the student's eyes were wet too. I could tell she was proud.
So this pencil was not petty; it was huge.
This phone call reinforced two important lessons for me. And I’ll share those next week.
Keep making a difference! And as always … feel free send this newsletter to any colleagues who you think might appreciate it.
Cheers!
Danny
