Dan St. Romain, Educational Consulting

CKC attendees never disappoint! Thanks for including me in this year’s effort.

Excited to be back in Santa Clara, California for this conference. Looking forward to having a great Saturday!

Great day of learning earlier this week with the staff at Castle Hills Elementary School in North East ISD.

As we said goodbye to 2025 earlier this week, I was thinking about one of my favorite animated children’s specials, Rudolph’s Shiny New Year. In it, Father Time tells Rudolph that if the horrible vulture, Eon the Terrible, takes Happy, the Baby New Year, time stops and the current year never ends.

2025 on continual repeat? Thanks, but no thanks. I can’t speak for others, but for me it wasn’t the best year. There were highs and lows, as always, but when I recall specific events, my brain tends to fixate on the latter. For this reason and others, it’s probably best to just move forward and let the past be passed.

I like celebrating the new year because for me it represents change, feeding my desire to wipe the slate clean and have a start fresh start. 2025 presented many challenges, but there were also blessings sprinkled in along the way.

This year I’m going to do my best to focus on the blessings rather than obsessing on troubling factors I can’t control. And because I believe we find what we are looking for, I’ll strive to look for the good – and in doing so, hope it will spread.

Happy New Year.

Perspective and attitude carry a great deal of weight when it comes to behavior. Accordingly, I need to slow down during this hectic month. Of course, my tendency is to speed up. I make a list of all the tasks needing completion before the year’s end and check it twice. Can you relate?

The problem for me is one of focus. I try to “fit it all in” and “get it all done” looking ahead towards the light at the end of the tunnel. Not only does this future-based orientation raise anxiety and escalate my behavior, but most concerningly, it keeps me from living in and appreciating the present.

Our family celebrates Christmas – but this year rather than counting down the days until then, I’m choosing to treat the entire month of December as part of the holiday itself. My goal is to focus on the gift of the day-to-day journey rather than viewing work as something I must “get through” to enjoy the break that follows. I’m optimistic this small shift in perspective will help slow me down, keeping my Grinch-like tendencies at bay.

I hope you have a blessed and happy holiday season.

You might have noticed I stepped away from technology over the past few months. It wasn’t a choice at first. 2025 has been a challenging year - and one that has reminded me of the importance of homeostasis.

A simple definition of homeostasis is “any process we use to maintain stable conditions necessary for survival.” Stable conditions - I love this idea. When overwhelmed, what do you do to achieve homeostasis? For me, it’s both an internal and external process.

Cutting down on outside stimuli helps immensely. This means stepping away from electronics and surrounding myself with people who have a calming and grounding influence. I also find time each day to slow my brain down and sit in silence. This one is a challenge since I’m a taskmaster who loves to check off “to-do” boxes. Lastly, I try to get more sleep.

This week I invite us all to be more intentional about keeping a healthy homeostatic balance in our lives. As I tell kids, “The more we practice, the better we get.” So, find what works for you put it into practice.

Have a good week.

So, it’s been a while since I’ve posted. Sorry – this was not my intent. As I mentioned in a prior blog, my wife and I spent a great deal of time over the summer in Ohio with a lifelong friend who is now in hospice care. We’ve felt fortunate to be able to do this. I’ve taken a great deal less work this year, which is usually hard for me to do. But when faced with major life events, it’s amazing how quickly the order of items on our “to-do” list shifts.

My current realization? Time is a gift, but it is finite – and we never know how much of it we will have. Of course, I know this theory, but it has failed to have a strong enough impact on my actions. Over the years I got so caught up in my never-ending work routine, that I often failed to prioritize people over tasks. And I’ve done this in many roles – as a husband, parent, and friend.

Work is a reality. And for most, our work dictates our ongoing schedule. However, when we are not at work, we have some choice about both the number and quality of our interactions with others. When students are doing their schoolwork, I often ask, “Are you using your time wisely?”. To the extent possible, moving forward I want to do a better job of setting some boundaries and practicing what I preach by asking myself this same time-sensitive question.

Welcome to the new school year. Consider kicking it off by working with your students on setting behavior and/or academic goals. I tell younger students, “One goal makes our heart happier, and the other makes our brain smarter.” Frame the discussion in terms of strengths and opportunities. “We are all good at some things, and we all have areas needing improvement.” Model this concept by setting your own goals and sharing them with your kids.

With younger students, write a note home letting parents know the goals on which their children are focusing. Older students can write the letter themselves and follow up with weekly journal entries about their progress over the course of the semester. This activity lends itself well to great discussions with kids and parents come report card and conferencing time.

One caveat: Keep the focus of this activity on the process of continuous improvement rather than the finite end-result of making or breaking a goal. This can be accomplished by setting realistic goals and working with your students on finding some degree of success in achieving them. Success builds confidence, which in turn leads to greater effort.

Everyone can benefit from goal setting. It’s a healthy lifelong practice. I can only imagine how much better the world would be if all adults and kids worked to have happier hearts and smarter brains.

Thanks, ESC-16 early childhood educators in Amarillo, Texas. Have a great start to your school year.

Professional development shenanigans with the staff at Olympia Elementary in Judson ISD. I could get used to presenting at schools that are less than a mile from my house.

Looking forward to a great day with Corpus Christi educators!