Better Together

I often hear and say the phrase, “We are better together”. I truly believe this to be true, and when I come across a story that exemplifies this phrase, I take note, jotting it down to share with others.

At our house in the country, we have a wood burner that we use to heat the house during the winter. It is a wonderful, warm heat, and well worth the work it takes to heat the home. Last year, we were not quite sure how much wood we would use, and so we did what we could throughout the winter to chop wood and buy a few chords of wood here or there to make due. This year though, we are much more aware of how much wood we need to heat our house, and so we saved our money and bought some chords of wood to be prepared before winter hits.

These past couple of weeks, we ordered 6 chords of wood, giving us time to stack the wood and get ourselves set before any cold weather ever comes our way. When it is dropped off, it is dumped from truck in a huge pile, and the family all pitches in to get the job done.

This weekend, it was time to stack the wood, but all the boys were a bit tired, suffering from small summer colds, so my husband and I went out to stack the wood ourselves. We had beautiful weather - not too warm, a nice breeze, and a few clouds every once in a while to break up the sun. Pandora played our favorite Journey station, and we sang a few tunes while we worked. We worked for about an hour, almost finishing one chord, moving it from a pile in the grass to a nice stack next to the wood burner.

All of a sudden, I looked up from my work and noticed our oldest, Alex, on his way out, putting on his gloves. He didn’t say a thing, just picked up a piece of wood and started helping. The team just kept on trucking, making great progress on the chords of wood sitting in our yard. Not many words were said; it was a well-oiled machine of pitching in together to get a job done.

With the three of us working, we got the chords of wood stacked much faster than when it was just two of us. But as soon as we were done, another chord of wood was delivered, the last one for the weekend. For my husband and I, we were tired and my knee was hurting badly. And so, it was time for the ENTIRE team to get to work.

With a little coaxing, all 5 of us were out there, one more chord of wood to go. Music blaring, we were an assembly line of wood stackers. What took my husband and I a little over an hour to stack one chord, with all 5 of us working, we got it done in about 40 minutes. Teamwork works. It is not just more hands on deck getting the work done. It feels good to work together as a team for a common goal.

That night, we celebrated with Dairy Queen. A job well done.

Better together. When we work together, not only are we more efficient in our work, but we do a better job in the end.

I think back to a couple of years ago when our school started its work and conversation on establishing power standards in reading, writing, and math. If one person did this work, it would have not been efficient. It would have not been effective. And there would definitely not have been the empowerment and buy-in into the process and the outcome that was inevitably created through the process. We were truly better together, sharing thoughts and ideas, discussing experiences and knowledge, and building a vertical alignment of skills that we wanted for our students.

We were better together.

I think to my PLN, this plethora of ideas and knowledge on social media. My closest educator PLN friends are people I trust, with only a few I have met, but who I lean on for advice, ideas, and knowledge on how we all can become better together. Whether it is listening to their brilliance on Voxer or reading their tweets and blogs, I learn from them, and know in my heart that being connected means we are better together.

Being an educator is not a career of isolation. And while we all have time for reflection by ourselves, we grow together so we are better for our kids. We collaborate, work together to achieve a common goal, and share our knowledge with one another. Better together is not just a phrase; it is a way of life.

As a new school year is about to begin, I am excited for the opportunity to become better together, as we work together toward our vision of focusing on our instruction and growth as a school. We truly are better together for our kids!