Recently Mary and I were coordinating our September calendars. As we finished, she reminded me not to forget the meeting on Monday. “Right, on New Year’s,” I replied. She laughed. And I laughed at the slip of substituting New Year’s for Labor Day, and then the two of us agreed that September is the start of both our fiscal year, and the school year.
This incident stimulated some thinking back to my past school year starts. Getting your classroom (sometimes classrooms) ready. Planning the first several days. Incorporating improvements into lessons. Adjusting strategies. And when I was a council president, writing a Welcome Back article for the newsletter.
This is not a Welcome Back to School article. This is being read by more than our members, and so while my comments are mainly for our members, I am mindful of a wider audience. I have been thinking about the past year, my first as vice president. I’ve been evaluating how I did, and developing ideas on how I can use what I learned to be better this year. I know I won’t be perfect, because no one knows what situations I will face, but if I am well prepared, and flexible with the confidence to adapt to the circumstances that confront me, I will do the best I can.
It’s the same thing I expect from our public schools. As a citizen, as a parent, and as an educator, I want our youth to have a background of what past generations have learned, but I want them to be prepared and flexible enough to adjust to meet the unique challenges they will face in the coming years. I want them at their best when it really counts.
The greatest legacy we can leave our grandchildren is to prepare our children to make the world better than we have. And I think that is a fine way to start the year.
About Me
- Mike Ragan
- I would not have considered college if not for a high school counselor in suburban Philadelphia. I graduated with a degree in engineering and physics then worked all over the country as an engineer. With my wife who was teaching overseas, I studied psychology and education and received my teaching certificate at Heritage College in Toppenish then completed my student teaching while earning my Masters in Counseling Psychology from Washington State University. I became active in my association soon after I began teaching science in Kennewick 13 years ago. I took office as the WEA vice president July 2007. P.S. My favorite book is Hero Mama by Karen Spears Zacharias.
