How many times have you shared a full belly laugh with friends or family in the past week? In the past month?
Take a listen around your office; around the classrooms in your school or district. How much laughter do you hear? How many smiles do you encounter?
What do you find? Does there seem to be more catabolic energy that is reflected in the criticizing, complaining and blaming, or do you find more of the ease that accompanies the anabolic energies of optimism, support, and encouragement?
Educational leadership is wrought with stress! Especially at this time of year when most of the staff and the students are feeling spent. It wouldnât be a surprise if you observed and discovered more catabolic energy than anabolic energy.
But what do you want to create? What would it be like if you could inject your daily experiences with the joy of humor? How would that impact learning? Creativity? Health? How we get along with each other?
This week we are looking forward to our conversation with Mary Kay Morrison. Mary Kay is an educator and âhumergyâ expert. We will talk about what research tells us but even more importantly, we are going to talk about how to enhance our experiences through the anabolic energy of humor!
Mary Meduna is co-host of the show, “Educational Leadership, What Else Is Possible” with Margaret Ruff on the VoiceAmerica Variety Channel. Mary and Margaret share more than 40 years of experience in the public school setting including classroom, building administration, central office, special education administration and parent leadership.
What is unique about their histories is that at every turn, they both took the road less traveled.
What is the road less traveled? On this road, the status quo is questioned, even challenged. On this road, colleagues are honored for their contribution to the team, not for their position on the organizational chart. On this road, the emphasis is on supporting others to grow in their roles, not on doing it for them.
And It HURT, man! Really bad!
With a belief in the value of access to public education for all, and with a belief that leaders with the knowledge, skill, and talent to create a supportive work and learning environment are already in the system, they set out to find a way to support these leaders. Through traditional administration programs and industry-leading coaching programs, they have prepared themselves to develop school leaders who lead with their spirit so that the collective spirit of public education becomes generative and innovative.
