Word: Threshold Sentence: Every threshold is an invitation to enter differently than we arrived. Passage: When I first started teaching, I realized pretty quickly that many of my students were bringing a lot with them into my classroom. It made sense. Their worlds were big and complicated, and whatever had happened before they reached my door…

Word: Inheritance Sentence: We do not choose everything we inherit, but we do choose what we carry forward. Passage: When I walked into my first principalship, there had been four principals in four years. Each leader had created their own version of the school. For good or bad, each had left something behind. Systems. Traditions. Relationships.…

Word: Fire Sentence: Fire is the purpose that pulls us toward the people and places that need our care. Passage: I have always been someone who runs toward the fire. I am not sure where that started. Maybe it started in sports. I loved the big moment. Bottom of the ninth. Game tied. The kind of…

Word: Why Sentence: Your why may not protect you from the hard days, but it can still help carry you through them. Passage: One year ago, I started The Match weekly newsletter with this word. Why. It felt like the only place to begin. When I was principal at Sullivan High School, before the numbers moved,…

Word: Crisis Sentence: Every crisis asks the same question: What will this moment grow inside of you? Passage: In January of my first year as a principal, I was in the thick of it. The school had spent thirteen years on academic probation. More than 500 suspensions had been handed out the year before. We had…

Word: Healing Sentence: Healing begins when we stop rushing past the hurt and give it somewhere honest to go. Passage: Healing is hard because it asks us to move into the unknown. The past may have hurt us, but at least we know it. We know how to carry it. We know how to protect ourselves…

Word: Grief Sentence: Grief is what we carry when something we loved can no longer stay the same. Passage: I did not have the language for educator grief when I first experienced it. I just knew I was tired in a way sleep did not fix. During one school year at Harper, we lost eight students…

Word: Stewardship Sentence: Stewardship is caring for what has been entrusted to you and helping it move forward. Passage: I did not understand stewardship when I first became a teacher. I just knew the work felt heavier than I expected. My first job out of college was at an alternative school for young people who had…

Word: Restore Sentence: To restore something is to believe harm does not always get the final word. Passage: To restore is not the same as to fix. Fix sounds quick. Restore takes time. To fix something is to make it work again. To restore something is to ask what was harmed, who was hurt, and what…

Word: Creativity Sentence: Creativity refuses to let what is become the limit of what could be. Passage: Creativity is often treated like something extra. Something for artists.Something for musicians.Something for people with paint, stages, notebooks, cameras, studios, or songs. But I think creativity is bigger than that. Creativity is what helps us move forward when the…