AWSP Blog

Chances are you’ve participated in or at least heard of a white elephant gift exchange. Each year before we close the office for the holidays, the AWSP staff holds a white elephant gift exchange, typically at our office or a restaurant. We gather around a table and one by one, choose, open, and steal gifts. We’ve had people bring old mix tapes, creepy bird paintings, and even a full-size family wall portrait. Many people leave the exchange with something cute or fun – silly socks, tasty treats, or new bowls for their kitchen. But undoubtedly someone leaves with something they never expected, never wanted, and aren’t sure what to do with now. They take the gift home awkwardly, vowing to save it and pawn it off on someone at next year’s exchange.  When you think about it, 2020 has been a white elephant year of sorts. We certainly weren’t expecting it, most of us had no idea what to do with it, and I’m pretty sure we’ve all thought more than once that we wish we could send it back. (Sorry! Leaving unwanted gifts behind at the restaurant is not allowed.) Being stuck with it, we’ve had to learn to make the most of it.

How are you going to speak about the year 2020? There has been so much that has occurred this year. It can be challenging to synthesize how to articulate our feelings, thoughts, and moments from this year. As I begin to reflect, I wanted to recontextualize the year and provide some opportunities for us to talk a moment to reflect and dig into our realizations. If we speak our realizations, we can learn and grow from them.

Here are some fun days in December and ways to use them with your students, staff, and families.

Here are some fun days in November and ways to use them with your students, staff, and families.

Rolling up in front of Liberty High School in Spangle, Washington was not like the traditional experience of which I was accustomed. For decades, if you pulled into any typical high school parking lot, you’d find cars parked everywhere and a busy scene filled with students moving about socializing in small groups. Not today. It was eerily quiet. Instead I found a half-full parking lot, void of typical activity. What I knew however was that Liberty High School opened in a hybrid model and that students were definitely on campus, but only half of them. I also knew that Principal Aaron Fletcher, a 12 year veteran principal (22 years in district), was somewhere inside principaling. What I didn’t know exactly was what “principaling” meant in our current COVID reality.