🌿 Your Tuesday Email: Forward with Presence

Hello Reader!

Finishing the Year with Clarity, Care, and Something Left

May is the most emotionally complex month in the school year. May arrives like a held breath. You can see the end, but you're not there yet. Students are restless. You're tired. And something in you knows that how you finish will shape how you begin next year. This month is about moving forward. Not frantically, not perfectly, but intentionally.

May sends us this signal that makes us want to sprint to the finish line, but you just have to keep going with purpose. The end of the year deserves your full attention.

You can see June from here! The testing season is winding down or wrapping up. End-of-year events are stacking up on the calendar. Students are sending all kinds of signal! Some wired, some withdrawn, some quietly asking with their eyes whether any of this actually mattered.

And underneath all of it is a very natural temptation: to begin checking out before it's over. Sound familiar?

The Danger of Finishing Early in Your Head

Most educators don't get to leave their classrooms or schools the same time students do. But many of them leave in their minds weeks before their body does.

They're present physically but absent relationally, processing the year that was, planning the summer that will be, calculating everything that didn't get done. All of it is understandable. Sadly, none of this is useful right now.

Your students can feel when you've moved on and so can your colleagues. Finishing in your head before you finish in your physical space is the most common way a school year quietly unravels at the end. Not necessarily in a crisis, just in a slow disconnection that everyone notices and nobody names.

Presence Is a Professional Skill

Being present in May is not about forcing enthusiasm you don't feel, nor is it pretending the year hasn't been hard or that you're not exhausted.

It's about choosing, consciously, to let what's happening in front of you matter more than what's happening in your head.

That choice looks like:

• Greeting students at the door, even on the days you don't feel like it
• Looking up from your screen during lunch instead of using every minute to prep
• Noticing the student who's suddenly quiet and asking one genuine question
• Letting yourself feel something at an end-of-year moment instead of just managing it

Podcast:

• This week: Episode 107: How To Attract And Keep Great Teachers with co-authors Jessica Holloway and Carrie Bishop. Teacher retention gets blamed on pay, policies, and “kids these days” but the truth we keep hearing is simpler and harder: people stay where they feel trusted, heard, and valued. Jessica and Carrie share ideas from their book, Make Your School Irresistible: The Secret to Attracting and Retaining Great Teachers, and unpack what actually makes educators commit to a school and what makes them quietly start planning their exit.
• Next week: Human centered schools with Randy Ziegenfuss
• Last week: Episode 106: The TPO Meeting Fix with Chris Fenning

Listen to the pod on all the platforms like Apple, Spotify, iHeart Radio and YouTube. Now you can follow us on Instagram.

Resources:

• ASCD article: The Power of Teacher Presence​
• Edutopia article: "How to Stay Engaged at the End of the School Year"​

Reflection

• Where have you already started "finishing early" (mentally, relationally, or professionally)?
• What would it mean to stay fully in the room for the next four weeks?

Presence isn't passive. It's the most active form of leadership you have in May. Stay present for you and your students. It's way more fun for everyone!

Yours,

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P.S. Forward this email to colleagues who you think would enjoy the connection and resources.