Restore the Roar

By Laura Moore

Spanish Teacher Tony Naska

The other day, one of my colleagues passed me in the hallway and I couldn't stop staring at his shirt.

Despite rushing from one task to another, I slowed my stride when I saw it, ultimately pausing beneath the threshold of the learning center doorway. I had a million other thoughts hovering in the back of my brain, but I couldn't get his vintage gold t-shirt out of my mind.

"Restore the Roar," it said in cracked black letters: Restore the roar.

The exclamation screamed from the threads, and as bizarre as it all seems now, I couldn't help but nod, to agree, to mouth a yes in the middle of the library without any context whatsoever for those who overheard me.

Despite how odd my mutterings might have sounded to those who weren't privy to the inner workings of my mind, my response to that t-shirt--that harbinger of inspiration--felt appropriate. Simple in concept, yet powerful in its mission, that phrase captured what I hope to do in my new role as the Instructional Leader for the Research & Development Lab.

We have teachers imagining, developing and executing world-class instruction, and we have teachers and students conceiving a host of possibilities. This year, Upper Arlington is dedicating resources toward capturing what is already happening, as well as connecting thinkers who are interested in collaboration, design, prototyping, and experimenting with new ideas. 

As all of this happens, I am lucky enough to help uncover the details, to step out of my own classroom and observe the innovation surrounding me, to facilitate connections, to listen to ideas, to pursue funding and to tell the stories spilling out in our hallways and well beyond our doors. I get to plug in the speakers, turn on the camera, and amplify the learning bellowing from this building. I get to help, in some small way, to restore the roar.