{"id":4881,"date":"2020-01-27T08:34:49","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T16:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insideout.abbotsfordchristian.com\/?p=4881"},"modified":"2020-01-27T08:34:49","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T16:34:49","slug":"musings-of-a-snow-shoveling-principal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/2020\/01\/27\/musings-of-a-snow-shoveling-principal\/","title":{"rendered":"MUSINGS OF A SNOW SHOVELING PRINCIPAL"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are plenty of jobs I\u2019ve had to do this year as a principal that seem a little<\/em> outside the \u201cnorm.\u201d We often refer to these things as \u201cother duties as required.\u201d It\u2019s a joking reference to a line in our contracts that doesn\u2019t really exist\u2026but it should!<\/p>\n

My \u201cother duty as required,\u201d along with Mr. Berger, was shoveling snow during our week of snow days. There is something simple and soothing about shoveling snow:\u00a0 your progress is evident and the simple physical labour lets your mind wander. It also doesn\u2019t hurt that we only do it for 3-5 days a year!<\/p>\n

So, as I shoveled snow in anticipation of the returning students, I thought I\u2019d share some of my wanderings with you.<\/p>\n

The Last Time?<\/h2>\n

Part way through my shoveling I became really excited\u2026It hit me that I was shoveling our future learning commons. No more shoveling this pathway next year!<\/p>\n

The simple task of shoveling snow allowed me to reflect on the exciting changes at ACS that lie before us and God\u2019s faithfulness to us through it all. In the stillness, along with the steady scrape of the snow shovel, I not only just focused on the day-to-day, but looked ahead to what will be and I\u2019m excited!<\/p>\n

Gratitude<\/h2>\n

One of the things I love about ACS is that we\u2019re never alone. The work we do is often difficult but also immensely rewarding and usually in the context of community, with staff, students and parents.<\/p>\n

Shoveling snow was no different.<\/p>\n

I admit I was a little late to the shoveling party (I had a breakfast meeting!);<\/strong><\/span> Mr. Berger was shoveling snow for quite some time by the time I arrived. After a bit of heckling from Mr. Berger for being so late, we both got into the groove and set to work.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s representative of how we do things here at ACS. We have a little fun, maybe give each other a hard time, but when push comes to shove, we serve our community alongside each other. There\u2019s a deep comfort in knowing we don\u2019t do this work alone. We do it in the context of community and with a lot of prayer.<\/p>\n

Change of Pace<\/h2>\n

This series of snow days was my first as principal. Up at 5:30 am in my cold, dark home office huddled over my iPhone and my computer<\/strong><\/span> trying to make sense of five different weather forecasts\u2026sigh. Many of us try to get things accomplished despite the snow day, but there are moments you get to carve out with family.<\/p>\n

There is something magical about a snow day.<\/p>\n

Big \u201cfancy\u201d breakfasts, hot chocolate and cinnamon buns after a day of sledding, night sledding with glow sticks, building snowmen, and of course, shoveling snow. Despite the stress and challenges of missing multiple days of school, I reflected with gratitude on the memories I was able to make with my daughters that week.<\/p>\n

The Many Paths We Walk<\/h2>\n

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. But when you\u2019re trying to shovel a clear path for over 600 students, one straight path just won\u2019t do. Students come from all over the place and have many different places to go.<\/p>\n

We ended up shoveling a maze of routes from one place to the next.<\/p>\n

Similarly, we all have a path\u2014a vision set out before us, but there are a lot of people walking: students, parents, and staff. Many of us know the path we want to take to get to the destination. Some of them are direct, some of them detour, but we\u2019re all trying to get to the same place.<\/p>\n

We are a diverse community with diverse paths, but we are all unified by one faith, one God, and a common mission to engage minds, nurture hearts, and shape God\u2019s world. The network of interconnected pathways reminds me of this.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s hoping those were the last snow days for this year, but I sure welcomed the change of pace!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are plenty of jobs I\u2019ve had to do this year as a principal that seem a little outside the \u201cnorm.\u201d We often refer to these things as \u201cother duties as required.\u201d It\u2019s a joking reference to a line in our contracts that doesn\u2019t really exist\u2026but it should! My \u201cother duty as required,\u201d along with […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":156,"featured_media":4883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,35],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-4881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-school-vision","category-secondary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/156"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4881"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=4881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}