Catherine Sosnowski

40 year veteran of the battle against illiteracy - teacher, writer, reader, chief cook and bottle washer

[Dr. Bryan Pearlman #MaslowBeforeBloom @DrP_Principal]

What Makes a Great Education Leader?

The best school leaders are rarely remembered because they won the most awards, had the most impressive resume, or introduced the most initiatives.

They are remembered because of how they made people feel:

-Students remember the principal who knew their name.

-Teachers remember the leader who stood beside them during difficult moments.

-Families remember the administrator who listened without judgment.

In my experience, the very best education leaders possess these qualities:

1. Compassion and Empathy
Great leaders understand that behavior is communication. They look beyond the surface and ask, "What might this person be carrying right now?" They lead people, not programs.

2. High Integrity
Trust is everything. Say what you mean. Do what you say. Admit mistakes. Protect people. Character always matters more than charisma.

3. Supportiveness
The best leaders don't just evaluate people; they develop them. They coach, encourage, celebrate growth, and help others become the best versions of themselves.

4. Listening
Many people in schools don't need someone to fix them immediately. They need someone to truly hear them. Great leaders listen to understand, not simply to respond.

5. Curiosity
Curious leaders ask questions before making assumptions. They wonder about the function of behavior, the root cause of problems, and the stories they may not yet know.

6. Communication
Clear, honest, frequent communication reduces anxiety, builds trust, and keeps communities together during both celebrations and storms.

7. Focus
Schools face a thousand competing priorities. Exceptional leaders know what matters most and keep the main thing the main thing.

8. Servant Leadership
Leadership is not about power, titles, or being the smartest person in the room. It is about serving others and helping them succeed.

9. Lifelong Learning
The best leaders remain students themselves. They read, reflect, seek feedback, and never believe they have "arrived."

10. They Had Your Back
Not just when things were going well. Not just in words. Great leaders show up when people need them most. They stand beside staff during difficult conversations, support them through mistakes and struggles, and advocate for them even when it is hard or unpopular. People never forget the leaders who were there during their toughest moments.

At the end of the day, people may forget many of the initiatives we implemented.

But they will never forget whether they felt valued, safe, supported, and believed in.

And that may be the most important leadership legacy of all.

*Who do you know that sounds like this?

[Michelle Obama @MichelleObama]

Barack: You told me all those years ago that you couldn’t promise me the world, but you could promise me an interesting life. Of course, you outdid yourself and managed to give me both.

Eight years in the crucible, and not once did you melt from the heat. Not once did you let it harden you. Instead, you used it to reveal your truest essence: your stubborn optimism and unflinching courage, your dazzling brilliance and unpretentious decency, your ferocious work ethic and absolutely unshakable moral fiber.

[Cris Tovani @ctovani]

Make Iran great again by Donald Trump. He betrayed us all.

[Catherine Sosnowski @csosnowski72]

Yes.

[Catherine Sosnowski @csosnowski72]

So miss this incredible woman.

[Help A Teacher @HelpATeacher]

Reading counts!

[Christopher Webb @cwebbonline]

Trump may as well have called the rest of us peasants.

According to him, it wasn’t workers who built America. It was rich guys like him and his cabinet:

“These people built the country, not the complainers. The complainers didn’t build the country…. Whether it’s fishermen or farmers or anything else. Me. Guys like me, they built the country. And you know, I watch all these ingrates, they’re always complaining, complaining. They didn’t build anything, they couldn’t build anything.”

[Catherine Sosnowski @csosnowski72]

DNC are you listening ? We need a platform beyond just beating the other candidate. What do we stand for? What will we fight for? What will we work for?

[Bri Gillis @Bgilly13]

Dems have been looking for their message for years, and @AnnieAndrewsMD just did it (in under two minutes). Take note 📝

[Catherine Sosnowski @csosnowski72]

I tell baby teachers for every student you know you’ve had a positive impact, there are 3 or 4 whose lives you’ve changed that you’ll never know about.

[𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐝 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 @DrBradJohnson]

https://t.co/hkA90rLIen

[Tara Bella @Tarasworld21]

A MESSAGE TO ALL SANE REPUBLICANS:
He pardoned 1,600 violent criminals.
You said nothing.
He bulldozed the East Wing.
You said nothing.
He interfered with the release of the Epstein files. You said nothing.
He took over the Kennedy Center and renamed it after himself. You said nothing.
He accepted a $400 million airplane as a personal gift. You said nothing.
He threatened Canada, Cuba, Denmark, Greenland, Venezuela, Colombia, and Brazil. You said nothing.
He tariffed just about everyone but Russia, causing inflation and instability worldwide. You said nothing.
He attacked a nation during mediated negotiations. You said nothing.
His ill-conceived war killed 175 children on day one. You said nothing.
He alienated and insulted our allies. You said nothing.
His ICE Army terrorized and murdered U.S. citizens. You said nothing.
He committed murder on the high seas. You said nothing.
He co-opted the Justice Department and directed it to prosecute his political enemies. You said nothing.

It’s time to start talking.
By Christina Lorey

[Catherine Sosnowski @csosnowski72]

This is not binary. We can hold both these feelings at the same time.I love this profession but I have no illusions. On its best day it’s a challenge. On its worst day it is almost insurmountable. This is year 44. It has gotten harder.

[Monte Syrie @MonteSyrie]

This doesn’t mean I love it any less.

In fact, it’s likely that I (still) love it so deeply, dearly that makes it so hard.

Was called everything from right on to a whiny idiot yesterday.

Right, wrong (or idiotic), it’s still my truth.

And I’m still facing it.

And not alone.

[Catherine Sosnowski @csosnowski72]

Yes.

[Richard Angwin @RichardAngwin]

Portraying draft dodger Trump in military uniform is insulting to those of us who actually served.

Do you agree ??

[Catherine Sosnowski @csosnowski72]

Yes

[Monte Syrie @MonteSyrie]

I’ve said it a million times, and I will likely say it a million more.

Doing Smiles and Frowns every day is the most important thing I’ve ever done in my 30 years in the classroom.

And the kids let me know.

[Occupy Democrats @OccupyDemocrats]

BREAKING: NOT SO FAST! Federal judge reopens Trump’s IRS case and demands to know if her court was defrauded.

Judge Kathleen Williams has had enough.

In a brief but devastating order Friday, the federal judge in Miami reopened Donald Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS — a case Trump had voluntarily dismissed last week specifically to avoid her scrutiny — and ordered Trump's lawyers to explain by June 12th why she shouldn't find that the entire scheme was a fraud perpetrated against her court.

The judge's language was pointed and precise. She said she wanted to investigate "grievous allegations" that the deal to resolve the case was "premised on deception." She asserted that she was "empowered to investigate serious misconduct" and demanded answers to two devastating questions: was "the court the victim of a fraud," and did Trump collude with his own government to settle the case specifically "to avoid judicial scrutiny"?

The answer to both questions, based on everything that has already been reported, appears to be yes.

Judge Williams had been circling this case for weeks before Trump pulled it. She had openly questioned how Trump could sue an agency he controls, with government lawyers who answer to him, producing a settlement negotiated with officials he appointed. She ordered both sides to explain whether they were actually adversaries or secretly colluding. Trump dismissed the case the day before those briefs were due.

Then, after she closed it, the Justice Department released not one but two extraordinary agreements — a $1.776 billion fund to compensate Trump's allies, and a separate one-page document permanently barring the IRS from ever auditing Trump, his family, or his businesses. Agreements that had apparently been negotiated while the case was supposedly active before her court.

Judge Williams cited the New York Times report revealing that the IRS had prepared a 25-page memo outlining strong defenses against Trump's suit — defenses the Justice Department never raised in court, never filed, never mentioned.

Her order came directly in response to the filing by 35 former federal judges — appointed by presidents of both parties — who called the scheme a fraud and urged her to reopen the case.

She listened.

"We stand ready to work with the court as it investigates this matter," said Norman Eisen, who represented the former judges.

Trump tried to flip the table before she could see the cards. She just put them back on the table.

If you can’t wait to see the Justice Department try to explain itself, please like and share this post everywhere.

[Occupy Democrats @OccupyDemocrats]

BREAKING: HELL YES! Vietnam veterans hit Trump with a massive lawsuit to stop his hideous and “disrespectful” Triumph Arch from being erected in D.C.

They didn't mince words about that draft-dodging coward...

"We know how authoritarian dictatorships work. There's no rule of law, there's no consent of the governed, and there's monuments for the leaders there," said veteran and retired diplomat Jon Gundersen.

"I think what we're doing is being loyal to the country. And loyalty can be measured in different ways," Gundersen added. He's suing the Trump administration along with veterans Shaun Byrnes and Michael Lemmon. Their lawsuit is joined by the ethics watchdog group Public Citizen.

The arch, which Trump has admitted is being built to honor himself, is slated to go up between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, our country's most hallowed resting place. At over twice the size of the Lincoln Memorial, the 250-foot-tall eye sore would cut off a clear view between the memorial and cemetery — inserting Trump's ego smack dab in the middle of our national soul.

"It's more about the duty I feel towards my colleagues and friends who did not come home to stand up against this project, regardless of who's in charge," said Byrnes. "I think it's just disrespectful to those that I served with who didn't come back, and then, of course, to all those who are lying in Arlington National Cemetery."

He explained that he has always hoped to be buried at Arlington when he dies but if Trump's arch goes up he'll be forced to "reconsider" his options.

The lawsuit argues that not only is Trump's vanity project arch illegal because he failed to obtain congressional approval, but it's also a disastrous design decision because it disrupts the intended sightline between the cemetery, which lies on land seized from Robert E. Lee, and the Lincoln Memorial, which was erected in the wake of the Civil War.

Tellingly, the administration has yet to unveil a price tag for the arch. While Trump previously claimed that it would be fund by private donations (meaning corrupt pay-to-play bribes) he also said the same thing about his ballroom and is now seeking $1 billion to build that.

“Even if you took private donations, is that how we want to build monuments?” said Gundersen. “To the oligarchs who give money for favors?"

More to the point, what "triumph" is Trump celebrating? His Iran War is a world-historic debacle that will almost certainly end with Iran in direct control of the Strait Hormuz, cementing themselves as a preeminent world power. On the domestic front, it has been one defeat after another for the United States. Trump gutted Medicaid, destroyed our education and scientific research systems, and devastated our economy with harebrained tariffs and costly military adventurism overseas.

The only Trump-related triumph will belong to the American people when we finally kick him and his entire party out of power.

Please ❤️ and share if you oppose Trump's arch!

[RobertFella 🇺🇸 🇺🇦 @Bonkavision5]

Too on point not to share. This is great, but too bad the Orange Felon’s enablers won’t let him see it.
This Australian's reply to #Trump's rant about “NATO not being there for America” is perfect.
"Mate. You run a country with 600,000 homeless people sleeping on the street tonight. A country where 40% of adults can't cover a $400 emergency without borrowing money. A country where insulin costs more than a car payment and people are rationing it to survive. A country where medical debt is the number 1 cause of bankruptcy. A country where women are dying in hospital car parks because doctors are too scared of abortion laws to treat a miscarriage.
You lock up more of your own citizens than any nation on earth. More than China. More than Russia. More than North Korea. The land of the free has 2 million people in cages, and a quarter of them haven't even been convicted of anything. They're just too poor to make bail.
Your life expectancy is going backwards. You're the only developed nation where that's happening. Your infant mortality rate is worse than Cuba's. Your kids do active shooter drills between maths and English while you sell the gunmaker's stock to your mates.
Your minimum wage hasn't moved in 15 years. You've got teachers working 2 jobs and veterans sleeping under bridges and you just spent a trillion dollars flattening a country that didn't attack you.
And you’ve got a convicted felon, adjudicating raping, paedophile protecting, porn star shagging insurrectionist running the biggest dumpster fire war campaign since the Taliban thanked you very much for losing again.
And you're calling Greenland poorly run?
Greenland has universal healthcare. Free education. One of the lowest incarceration rates in the world. Nobody goes bankrupt there because they got sick. Nobody dies in a waiting room because their insurance said no.
'NATO wasn't there when we needed them." When exactly was that, champ? September 11? Because NATO invoked Article 5 for the first and only time in history FOR YOU. Soldiers from dozens of countries deployed, fought, bled, and died in Afghanistan FOR YOU. Australia wasn't even in NATO and we still showed up. For 20 years.
And you pulled out at 2am without telling anyone and left them to deal with the mess.
So maybe before you start calling other countries poorly run, have a look at your own backyard, you spray-tanned aluminium siding salesman. The only thing poorly run in this picture is your f----- mouth."
- Tony Locke

[Catherine Sosnowski @csosnowski72]

They were required at my school.

[Occupy Democrats @OccupyDemocrats]

BREAKING: Pete Buttigieg shows presidential leadership in making a powerful case on bridging political divides in red-state town hall!

Speaking in deeply red Beaverhead County, Montana, Pete Buttigieg gave one of his best answers yet when a left-leaning resident asked how she can convince his conservative neighbors that he loves America just as much as they do.

Buttigieg responded with empathy, strategy, and clarity. He thanked the woman for trying and reminded everyone that bridging divides is something all of us can do – with neighbors, at church, and even that crazy uncle in the family group chat.

“It’s not about hitting them with politics all the time, but modeling something different.”

Secretary Pete pointed out that many Trump voters are starting to see the gap between what they were promised and what they’re getting, from lower prices, to promises of no new wars, etc., creating an opening for real conversations.

He urged Democrats to be their authentic selves, because many on the right have been convinced by the Fox media bubble that liberals are truly “bonkers.” And most importantly, he stressed treating people with genuine regard:

“You’re not a bad person because of how you voted … When I’m talking to folks, it’s not ‘how can you be on board with that?’ It’s ‘he [Trump] doesn’t deserve you.’ He doesn’t deserve your loyalty, your support, your money, or your vote.”

This is why so many people respect the maturing Buttigieg. He refuses to write off millions of Americans and instead shows how Democrats can proudly claim their deep love of country while pushing back against Trumpism with respect and conviction.

All of us Democrats love this country deeply, and we’re ready to prove it by fighting for a better future for everyone. Buttigieg showed he can combine being smart as a whip, aces on the issues, and lightning fast on his feet -- with the humanity and common sense we all want in a leader.

If you agree, like and share this post.

[Catherine Sosnowski @csosnowski72]

Captain Kangaroo

[Freya 🇺🇸 @Freyaaie]

Name a famous captain

[Be A King @BerniceKing]

My mother’s words from 1995 remain painfully relevant.

As we face yet another Supreme Court ruling that chips away at the Voting Rights Act, her warning reminds us that voting rights are never secure when justice is weakened and representation is treated as optional. We must not be silent, passive, or discouraged. We must stay organized, educated, and engaged.

The fight for voting rights is still before us.

#CorettaScottKing #MLK #VotingRights #BelovedCommunity