The end of the school year always has me reflecting back
on the year. June craziness gives way to
July appreciation. As the dust settles,
I remember all the things I love about being an educator, and take the time to
savour the bits of the year that were extra special.
This year was a whopper.
After 20 years in my previous school district, I found myself in not
just one, but two, new school communities.
Not only were my surroundings unfamiliar, but I quickly realized that
the scale of things in a larger school district was very different from what I
had experienced before. New people, new
systems, different resources, different expectations.
It took until January not to feel like I was driving to someone else’s school
every day.
Now that I have time to reflect on what made the
difference in the new year, I’m realizing I have some people to thank. Some lollipops to give out.
I don’t know how many others out there are familiar with
lollipop moments. It’s a new idea for
me. I stumbled upon this great TED Talk
while I was looking for something about Leadership for a group of grade 6
students that I worked with this year.
In his talk, Drew Dudley argues that lollipop moments are
moments in life where “you have made someone’s life better by something that
you said or that you did...” These are moments that resonate for us, as individuals, but the person who created them isn't even aware of what they've done for us.
He defines these moments as acts of everyday
leadership, explaining that “we need to redefine leadership as being about
lollipop moments, how many of them we create, how many of them we acknowledge,
how many of them we pay forward, and how many of them we say thank you for.”
As I was wrapping up my time with students this year, I invited kids from a
number of classes to make a lollipop for a special adult in our building. Many knew exactly who they wanted to give
them to. An EA who “didn’t give up when
I didn’t understand the math.” A teacher
who “let me be creative when we made puppets.”
A counselor who “helped me with my friends and finding people to hang
out with at recess.” These lollipops weren't created quickly. I was astounded by the love, care and genuine appreciation that went into them.
Older students watched the clip with me. It's less accessible for the little ones, so with them, I read Cara's Kindness, a great story about paying it forward. The idea of giving someone a lollipop to say thank you wasn't hard to wrap our heads around after we thought about kindnesses that had been done for us over the course of the school year.
As educators, EAs, secretaries, principals, custodians, we are making a difference every day, whether we know it
or not. Our bulletin board had over 100
lollipops when we were done, and each one was different. And I know with certainty that the adults
receiving them didn’t already know how deeply the students felt about the things they
had done for them, because I spoke to a few who were genuinely surprised, and touched, by
some of the sentiments shared by the kids.
I wish I’d taken the time to speak directly to more of my
colleagues before the year wrapped up. the easy excuse is the fact that I was inordinately busy this June, even for someone who works in education- I was at two schools, was packing to move to a third, had a kid turning 16, another graduating from high school, and both of them leaving for an overseas trip with their Scout group.
But that really wasn't it. I didn't offer the lollipop thank yous personally because the thank-you’s were coming with
good-byes for the second year in a row, and in all honesty, I couldn’t bring
myself to do it. I had lots of lollipop
moments this year. I was warmly welcomed
by two school communities. I shared two different school offices with clerical and admin colleagues who always put kids first, even when they were making it really difficult for us to do so. I worked with
dynamic educators who were creative, and energetic and positive. I had the opportunity to learn alongside some
beginning teachers who asked amazing,
smart questions that pushed me to become a stronger educator. I collaborated with a diverse team to bring a highly
complex group of grade 12 students through to graduation, and shared a rich
kindergarten/grade one classroom with a master teacher of infinite
patience. No one gets to do all of that
in a single school year. I was given a
tremendous gift. My lollipops are for the
teams at Cedar Elementary and Secondary Schools. 
I highly recommend Dudley’s talk if you haven’t seen
it. Next year, I’m going to collect
lollipop moments right from the beginning of the year. And, I’m going to have a stash of lollipops
in my desk to help me celebrate them. I
challenge everyone who reads this to do the same. We should be celebrating and acknowledging
the grown ups. It's the work they do every day that makes such a profound difference for our learners. We are all working together, because They're All Our Kids.
