Monday Musings - Back from DC

I'm back!  I'm hardly caught up on emails or anything else, but have to say that it is good to be back!
I made a quick video to share some photos with students, along with our Trojan that you can find HERE.

I blogged about my reflections on the National Distinguished Principals program HERE, but here are some "snippets" I want to share with my Dodgeland family:
 I never understood why people say, “it was a humbling experience” or “I feel so humbled to receive this.”  But I think now I fully understand that phrase. This week I attended the NAESP National Distinguished Principals Program in Washington DC as the Wisconsin 2014 Elementary Principal of the Year and had a humbling experience as I joined 60 other amazing school principals from across our nation (and those leading American schools overseas).  There were several points of the program that I thought to myself, “do I really deserve to be here?” or “I have to go back next week and be as awesome as these people are making me feel!”  In reality, I know that I was only able to have this experience because of how hard the staff in our building work each and every day to make our school the best school for our students.  I am blessed to have had the opportunity to hear about the great things happening in schools across the country, learn from their amazing leaders and reflect on the work that I can continue to do as a leader for our great school. 
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As I heard firsthand from principals about some of the challenges in their states, I was so thankful to be in Wisconsin.  I am thankful that our state has not gone as “high stakes” as some other states, like Florida or New York and that Wisconsin has things right with support for preK/K (see more in my full post about that topic!)