McKay Musings

On this Friday I have so much to be grateful for. I have a job that I LOVE that impacts so many, an amazing family, my health, a house, food, great friends, the list is literally endless. I am a Christian, so I also have my faith and God.  I am truly, irrevocably blessed.  But today, no every day for months, I’m heartbroken. I’m heartbroken because it is 2020 and we STILL have significant, major, inexcusable racism and violence. Honestly, I am heartbroken because it took me until 2020 to fully realize this. I guess I was in my own bubble. I live in a small town out in west Texas, we are pretty isolated, but that isn’t an excuse. I have really lived my life separate from all of the pain and hurt that still takes place in our country and pled ignorance. For this, I am sorry. I am sorry that I haven’t done or said anything. I am sorry that I have largely ignored such a massive issue. I am sorry to all of my friends, colleagues, students, family, acquaintances, EVERYONE of color that I ha

Words matter.  Words aren’t just words, they are building blocks or a wrecking ball. Many things in life are made or destroyed by what we say. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. This is straight-up false! Words are powerful. Broken bones heal, I’m not sure emotional wounds ever do. This isn’t just a message for kids, although it is an important one for them as well. This is a message for us all. The words we use determine so much of the successes or failures in our lives. When rolling out a new initiative, the words you use to present the idea can go a long way to determining buy-in. The way you handle a “growth” opportunity with a teacher or student determines how the information is processed. If you correct in a positive manner, you promote growth, if you correct punitively, you promote resentment and have taken a sledgehammer to the relationship. Our words verbally, in written format, and digitally have the ability to change the world. They can aid i

How many of you like making lists? Are you a list person? I wouldn’t consider myself a TRUE list person, but I do make lists of my objectives for the day, the stuff I want to get done. We all know those TRUE list people, it is color-coded, using flair pens, with doodles to match. They make lists for EVERYTHING. That isn’t me, but I do find some pretty intense satisfaction marking things off of my list! I suppose the feeling people get when they watch the millions of “ oddly satisfying ” videos on YouTube, that’s the feeling of perfectly marking through the next item on my list. There are many benefits of lists. It is well documented, with the research to back it up, I might add. Here is a list of some of the benefits of  lists: It helps create order. It helps prioritize tasks. It provides a sense of productivity. It relieves stress. The list of the benefits of list-making could go on and on. Lists really are a great productivity tool. I highly suggest for everyone to channel their inne

Knowledge and wisdom are seemingly intertwined ideals. Knowledge is defined as facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education. Wisdom is defined as the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment. Using these definitions, you can see that while they are connected, they are not exactly synonyms, and you do not necessarily have wisdom if you have the knowledge, but you cannot have wisdom without knowledge. Knowledge is essential, but it is only a third of the wisdom equation. Experience + Knowledge + Good Judgement=Wisdom To truly become wise, you have to combine your background knowledge with experiences in the area of knowledge, and then you must make good decisions.  You can know EVERYTHING on a topic, but make poor decisions or lack experience. Likewise, you can have experience as say, a teacher, but lack the knowledge to be wise/successful. You didn’t have the needed preparation. The most difficult to swallow… You can have all th

If you have read my blog, my tweets, or watched my videos, you know I am passionate about education and I think that overall schools, administration, teachers, students, and parents have absolutely hung the moon! I am surrounded by real-life superheroes! So many in education are ROCKSTARS!  There has been a theme the past month and I personally think it is a GREAT trend! Below are some of the amazing things taking place during the current situation: There has been an increased focus on well-being! This is teacher well-being, student well-being, parent well-being! We are checking on and worried about EVERYONE’S well-being! This is a phenomenal development!  There has been an increased importance placed on relationships and supporting the whole child. There has been an increase in the buzz of SEL and making sure our stakeholders’ needs are taken care of.  Making connections has come to the forefront of education!  Providing grace for our students, our teachers, and our parents has skyroc

Teachers have been asked to defy the odds, do the impossible, create something from nothing… the list goes on. Raise your hand if 3 months ago you really thought that we would be in a situation where, pretty much universally, we are asking administrators, teachers, parents, and students to participate exclusively in distance learning. Anyone? Our teachers were essentially tasked with completely reworking our entire education system in a matter of days! I will go ahead and say I think they did a pretty bang-up job! Have we been perfect? No. Has there been trial and error? Yes. Can we do better? Sure. However, overall, as educators, we have managed to semi-successfully revamp our schools for emergency distance learning.  I applaud all involved to make this transition as smooth as possible. For many, we are already a month or more into this endeavor, but our teachers still need support! They still need guidance and forgiveness! The following are 5 ways that administrators and schools ca

Here is the 2nd installment of the vlog Choose to be GREAT a short video over the importance of relationships in education! Enjoy!!!

A quick Google search or Twitter search turns up 1,000’s of hits on how to support teachers during emergency distance learning, how to support students during emergency distance learning, how parents can support their children during emergency distance learning, and the list goes on. That is not going to be the focus of this post. There are a few out there, but an overlooked area is how schools, teachers, and administrators can support parents during distance learning. That is going to be the focus of this post. It is our responsibility to serve our parents in any way possible. We want to foster learning and build a positive bridge between school & community. The last thing we want to do is add to their stress. Parents have been put in an almost impossible situation. All of a sudden they have been thrust into a role that many of us never envisioned. Their children are now at home and, with little direction, parents are being expected to provide an appropriate learning environme

Below is episode one of the vlog, Choose to be GREAT. The print version is below. Thanks. Since this is the first episode, let me explain the concept a little bit. Basically the goal is to provide short, 5 minutes or less videos that add some value to your life. Choose to be GREAT is a philosophy I try to live by and the campuses I have led follow as well. The concept and framework we use for Choose to be GREAT in the educational setting will come up in my videos, but that’s not really the point or the focus. The content will be kind of random, I will touch on education in-depth, but also leadership in general, encouraging messages, and motivation. The tone will flow all over the place as well, from informative and formal to goofy and comical and everything in between (kind of like my own personality!) That’s enough rambling, I hope you enjoy this maiden voyage!   I’m a big Disney fan, yes the movies, they are awesome, but really I mean the man, Walt Disney himself. He made magic with

As a reminder, May is Mental Health Awareness Month.  Mental health is as important as physical health, unfortunately, mental illness isn’t seen in the same light as physical illness. The majority of people have no issue going to the doctor for a physical ailment, however, this isn’t the case with mental illness. In fact, most studies show that around 50% of all mental illness cases go untreated. As a whole, if we have a fever, we go to the doctor, if we break a bone, we get an x-ray, and if we have chest pains, we get to the hospital ASAP! The same can’t be said if we are depressed, anxious, or struggling with addiction. Mental Illness Facts Mental illness is relatively common, 1 in 5 people (20%) experience a mental illness (WHO, 2019) About 50% of all chronic mental illness begins by age 14 (NAMI, 2020) Approximately 800,000 people die by suicide every year. Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for individuals aged 15-29 (WHO, 2019) Nearly 60% of adults and 50% of youth

May is mental health awareness month. Mental health has typically had a stigma attached to it, especially in my home state of Texas. Being real, this is a topic near and dear to my heart. Full transparency, three of my wife and I’s family members have committed suicide and I’m not talking some distant relatives. One was my cousin, who was my next-door neighbor growing up and more like a brother to me, and the other two were my wife’s uncles. As an educator, I also routinely encounter students struggling with mental illness and I have two former students that took their own lives. Just to be frank, those aren’t the only 5 that have struggled with mental health issues, those are just the five that ended it. In our family alone, we have addictions/substance abuse, depression, anxiety, and eating disorders, just to name a few. I personally struggled with an eating disorder from the ages of 16-19, talk about stigma, a teenage male with an eating disorder. The impact mental health has pers