by Mark Hobbs

As April turns into May, educators often find themselves contemplating how to navigate the remaining weeks of the school year with a sense of optimism and energy.

The term “Mayday,” as defined by Merriam-Webster, serves as an internationally recognized radio word to signal distress, mostly by aircraft and boats. While most of us are happily only familiar with it through TV and fiction, stepping into a 7th grade classroom in May might make you want to sound the Mayday alarm yourself.

The chaos and copious amounts of body spray, can make you feel an urgency to call someone from maintenance who can get to your classroom in record time to pry open the window that’s been stuck since October or fix the air conditioning unit with life-saving urgency. Unfortunately, the final weeks of school aren’t always viewed as a beautiful academic culmination but rather more of a challenging journey to the finish line, regardless of the educational level. 

I am here to challenge you to shift your perspective from “Mayday” to “May Day.” What is a May Day, you ask? Merriam-Webster is here to help again,  May Day is the first day of May, and is celebrated as a springtime festival and in some countries as Labor Day. How about that for a plot twist? So rather than calling a Mayday, I am calling you to celebrate May Day, a time to acknowledge the growth made throughout the year. 

May Day is a celebration of spring, of growth and beauty, and of all the things that we could never imagine happening under the influence of our own two hands. Yet they unfold before our eyes, staring us in the face with all the wild wonder emulated by a high school student writing her first piece of poetry or a colorful field of flowers displaying our Creator’s unmatched imagination. May Day was a celebration of the common worker, a nod to the teacher who has put in countless hours of paper grading and lesson planning, or the student who has diligently done their best for the past eight months. Both equally deserve recognition for a job well done, at least for now… because there’s always another harvest.  

Throughout my time in Baylor University’s MA for School Leadership program, I’ve had the privilege of working with and learning from some of the best educators in the country, from the faculty at Baylor to my peers sitting beside me in class. The following ideas have routinely come up in our readings, dialogues, and lectures. Here are just a few ways that educators can turn their Mayday call into a call for a May Day. I hope this helps and you calmly land the plane of your school year in a field of freshly bloomed spring flowers.

Breathe: It might seem easier said than done based on how well your Claritin is working today, but for me personally, I’ve already been tempted to hit send on a late-night email that, come the next morning, didn’t accurately express the grace and space I would generally grant a coworker, or a parent, for a minor mistake. Wait, don’t hit send or dial the phone as quickly as you’d like. Pause, Pray, and maybe even ask a Peer for advice on how they would handle a similar situation.  

Ask Questions: Instead of asking pointed questions with a right and wrong answer, foster open-ended conversations that might allow someone the freedom to reveal their emotions or motivations behind why they made the decision that they did. You’ll learn so much more about the person by waiting to hear the Why behind their actions rather than reacting to the What.

Celebrate the Growth: No one is done. No one is complete. No journey is finished, and no story is fully written. So why do we look only at student outcomes, portraits of a graduate, or any other goal while not celebrating the shots that clanged off the goalpost along the way? So close! We are all constantly growing and changing, hopefully for the better, so let’s be willing to acknowledge the incredible chapters of a story that may not be finished by June. In fact, we should hope they aren’t finished because whether your students are second  graders or seniors, there’s still so much growth left!

See Something, Say Something: You may be used to a different meaning attached to this phrase, but in this context, I want you to look for the good in each person and every situation. There is so much beauty in this world and it gets overlooked every moment of our day. Be the victor and celebrate the ways you, and the people in your life, have seen such amazing success throughout this school year. And when you find that “W”, tell the world about it, especially when it’s not your own. Nothing feels better for a student or a teacher than having a personal hype person following you through the halls in the final weeks of school. 

By embracing the spirit of May Day, educators can navigate the final weeks of the school year with renewed energy and a heightened sense of appreciation for the journey ahead.

---

Mark Hobbs has taught and coached in Christian schools for the past 20 years in West Virginia, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. He currently serves as the Athletic Director at Lancaster County Christian School (LCCS) and also coaches middle school boys’ basketball. He is the President of the Commonwealth Christian Athletic Conference that serves 20+ Christian schools in District 3 of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association.

Mark is a current graduate student at Baylor University in the Master of Arts in School Leadership (MASL) program and serves as an MASL Fellow. In 2004, Mark graduated from Clarks Summit University in Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts in Bible and Health & Physical Education.

Mark lives in Lancaster, PA, with his wife of 18 years, Angela (who also teaches at LCCS), and his three kids- Julz (14), Jaxon (13), and Jeremiah (10). The Hobbs family enjoy a variety of sports, hanging with their dog, Stanley, and spending time with family and friends.

Mark comes from a family of Christian educators- his parents- David and Linda, his brothers- Chris and Brian, and their wives- Jen and Joy, as well as Mark’s wife- Angela, are all currently doing good work in Christian schools up and down the East Coast. As a family, the Hobbs’ have combined for over 150 years of service in eight states, connecting with thousands of young hearts for the Kingdom.