Author Archives: David Truss

It should be getting easier, but it isn’t

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Sometimes it’s hard to believe that we live in the 21st-century. It should be getting easier, but it isn’t. All of our schools just got new photocopy machines, and there is a one hour video tutorial to learn how to use them. More videos and instructions are required, if you are the one who is doing any kind of basic maintenance like replacing the toner.

Related to this, when was the last time you bought a new TV and you instantly knew how to use the remote? I find incredible irony that there is nothing universal about a universal remote control. I don’t know, call me crazy, but I would think that in this day and age the tools we use would get simpler to use, not more complicated.

Borrow a friend’s car and try to fill the gas tank and you’re left puzzled as to where the release is for the gas tank’s door. Go to the gas station and there’s a process to get your rewards card punched in, because you don’t have room in your wallet for 17 rewards program cards. Try to connect your phone to that same borrowed car, and you’re worried that you’re going to have to cancel another users profile. Or you are faced with a touch screen menu that just doesn’t make intuitive sense.

How is it that the user interface of almost everything we do now is more complicated than necessary? Why is it that every single place we go to online we’re expected to login or create an account, or at the very least close one or two pop-up invitations to do so? i’m looking at a website for 30 seconds, to find out one piece of information, do I really need to decide whether or not I want to accept cookies?

My microwave has a touch dial where I have to spin my finger in a circle to get to the appropriate time. I don’t think I can ever hit the time I want without toggling back-and-forth. This takes me significantly longer than if I had to punch three number keys on a touchpad and hit ‘Start’. There is nothing convenient about this. And that’s my point…

We live in an era when things should be getting a lot easier, user interfaces should be intuitive and natural to use, but instead everything seems to be getting a little more difficult. I just don’t get it.

Happy Canada Day

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I’m not going to watch fireworks tonight.

I haven’t done anything uniquely Canadian.

I’m not wearing red and white, and I’m not waving a flag.

That said, I’m a proud Canadian. An immigrant who calls this land home. And at this time I feel uniquely free compared to living south of our border.

On top of that, I actually had a medical test today that would have cost me hundreds or thousands of dollars down south, and it only cost me $7.50 in parking.

No, I may not be celebrating Canada Day out in the open today, I’m only having a small backyard bbq with family. That doesn’t mean that Canada Day isn’t special… because it is.

To all the proud Canadians out there, Happy Canada Day!

The stretch

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A few days ago I did something I’ve never been able to do. I stood up, bent over at the waist, and was able to not just touch my toes, but touch the floor. I just stopped writing this to try again just now and I wasn’t even close. The difference is that I did a good 10 minute stretch before the time I actually achieved this.

I’ll try again today after I’m warmed up. I have been stretching my hamstrings more than usual for quite a few months to get to this point. But I am probably years away from being able to touch my toes ‘cold’, without any warm up. Yet I am still appreciative of the gains I have made.

In every aspect of life, it’s good to stretch yourself!

The picture tells the story

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Friday was the last day of school, and while I had a good weekend before heading back in to work to clean things up, I felt very unmotivated. When I saw this image shared by a friend and coworker, I knew I had to share it too.

There is a saying, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person.”

Summer holidays always start very slow for me because suddenly I have time… the time that I said I wish I had, to do all the things I wish I could do. For me that’s more daunting than exciting. I have routines that automate a lot of the things I want to get done. Remove the routine, remove the automation, and suddenly everything takes effort, everything takes motivation, and motivation is harder to maintain than good habits.

So, I’ll go into a bit of a dip. I’ll struggle just to get the usual stuff done, despite having more time. Then I’ll adjust and it will all get better. But I’ve learned to give myself some slack and just slack off for a bit first. And that’s what this weekend was all about.

Listen up

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I started an audio book today. I think this is the longest I’ve gone without listening to a book in years. March break was the last time I listened to a book. This is unusual for me because I only listen to audio books, I don’t actually read books anymore.

I’ve been an Audible subscriber since 2017 and have 199 books in my library. Less than 20 are not started or fully completed. It occurred to me that I actually haven’t read a paper book since 2018. I’ve read some pages of a few books, but I haven’t completed reading a paper book in over 7 years.

I still end up doing a lot of reading on a screen, but it’s surprising to realize that I haven’t read a physical book in so long. To me audio books are reading. But I’m sure some purple don’t think so.

My dry spell recently involved catching up on some podcasts I like, but books are different. There is something special about ‘digging in’ to a good book. It just so happens that for me, I dig in by listening rather than visually.

The great thing about this is that I know that I’ve never in my life read 10 books in a year, but I’m averaging listening to 20+ a year. At this point I’m not sure if I’ll ever read a full paper book ever again? That seems so weird to say, and at some point I might change… but for now listening is my preferred, and only choice for consuming books.

Last day

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It’s the last day of school for teachers. Summer break begins for them at 3pm today. I can’t help but feel a bit sentimental at the end of each school year. It really hit me at our grad on Monday, and now again today.

I feel blessed to work at the schools I do. I feel lucky to work with the staff that I do.

It our district we tend to see administrative shuffles around 5 years, and occasionally a principal might stay in a school for 7-8 years. This is my 12th year with Inquiry Hub and 13th with Coquitlam Open Learning. Although most of those years I was actually vice principal, I have been the lead administrator for 11.5 years. That’s rare.

The fact that I’ve been here, at these two unique schools, for this long has been a blessing. In all honesty, had I been moved, I probably would have resigned by now. It’s really, really hard to go back into a traditional box after spending so long out of the box.

But it’s not just the schools themselves that have me feeling sentimental, it’s also the staff. I’m truly lucky to work with the teachers and secretaries that I’ve had the honour to work with. It’s pretty special to walk into a building every day and want to be around the people who you work with.

It is great when I get the opportunity to join the staff in the staff room at lunch. It’s special when the secretaries volunteer their time at evening events because they want to be there to celebrate the students. It’s amazing to watch teachers consistently do what’s great for kids in innovative and creative ways.

On this last day of school I feel blessed. And while I’m certainly looking forward to summer, there is already a little excitement about starting the new year… but that’s getting way ahead of myself. First things first… I’m going to enjoy our last day.

Blog post recipes

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I’ve been struggling to get writing this morning and so I went into my drafts folder. There I found a series of half-baked ideas that I hope to expand on at some point. But not today. Each idea is a rough recipe for a post, but missing some key ingredients that would take too much time to expand on. That’s usually what gets them stuck in my drafts.

This is a challenge when I have to squeeze my writing into the time frame of my early morning routine. It’s easy to shorten a workout (another part of my morning routine). I can do a walking meditation on a treadmill, instead of sitting for more time to meditate before my workout. What I can’t do is write on the treadmill, or while meditating.

I can’t rush writing. So on days when I really struggle to get going, writing becomes a challenge. The baking of an idea takes time. Sometimes I can just get started and let the ideas flow, but it’s the getting started that is the hard part.

Half-baked ideas can be a great inspiration, but they can also be a recipe for delay and procrastination. Writing is tricky that way. Sometimes you just need a single spark, just the right ingredient, and the whole post comes together. Other times you need all the ingredients clearly in front of you or the ideas don’t get fully baked.

So on these slow days I reflect on my past few days and search for inspiration. This can again be a spark for an idea, but it can also be a recipe for negative thinking. ‘Have the past few days been that un-inspirational?‘, ‘Do I really have nothing to share?’

These thoughts are a recipe for starting my day off poorly. Often it’s not that I have nothing to say, but that I have nothing to say publicly. For example, I have an old post draft from many months ago about how kids avoid seeking advice from adults, and end up seeking bad advice from other kids. I wrote the start of this draft in late 2024, but if I shared it now there are at least two students and their families who might think they are the recent inspiration for that post… when they aren’t.

It’s a good idea to share, but maybe in August when I haven’t been in a school for over a month. That’s the challenge sometimes. I have the ideas, the recipes for a blog post, but feel like I can’t share without seeming to reveal something too personal to others, or sometimes to myself.

So the drafts sit unbaked, and I’m left wondering what I can share this morning, or tomorrow morning? The challenge on these wondering-what-to-write days is that I can leave myself wondering why I have nothing to share? Do I hang up my daily writing hat and retire this practice?

No. Not yet. But I must admit that days like today really make me wonder if this cookbook of writing ideas hasn’t reached its last page.

Officially counting down

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Report cards go out tomorrow and Friday is the last day with staff to end the school year… and I’m done! Yes, I’ll be in next week, and there’s a fair bit to clean up before it’s officially summer, but I’m feeling checked out.

Not much left in the gas tank.

It started in June, people asking, “So, are you counting down to summer yet?” I probably heard that question a good 10-12 times in the first three weeks of June, and I always responded with a version of ‘Not yet’. I was being honest, I am not really someone who counts down to big events until they are very, very close.

Well, ask me today and my response is, “Absolutely, I’m counting down!”

I’m ready for summer.

Going to miss them

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We had our grad event last night. Seven performances, mostly from Grade 12’s, and student speeches that left me teary eyed. This one hit me harder than most. These grads feel more like family than students.

I’m realizing that I’ve got some work to do to connect with the other grades next year because it seemed that any time I was out of my office, this was the cohort I gravitated to. Every year seems to offer something a little different. Many students in this group would visit the office almost daily. Grade 12’s need to sign in when they don’t have a first block class, and my secretaries would have full 5 minute conversations with these students. Inevitably I’d get pulled in too.

I get a little nostalgic every year around this time, but I have to say that this grad class was really something special and I’m going to miss them!

Writing a grad speech

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It would be easy to repeat a previous speech, but I can’t. It would be easy to get AI to do it for me, but I can’t. I enjoy writing. I like to personalize what I say to a group of grads. I want the message to be uniquely from me.

This year I mixed an unrelated story and a quote together. This made it a lot tougher to do. I think I’ve got something that will work and be appreciated. But in the end our grad is about the kids performing and that’s what students will remember.

A grad speech is a tribute not a lecture. It’s a small part of the celebration… but it’s still something I like to make unique every year, and this year is no exception.