SMS Principal Blog

"There never shall be one lost good. All we have willed or hoped or dreamed of good shall exist." -Robert Browning It has been a little over a week now since the horribly events at Mattoon High School. Unlike the moments after the shooting, we now know the immediate outcome. We know that because of the heroic actions of a teacher, the incident resulted in zero fatalities. This is nothing short of miraculous. Events like the ones that unfolded just miles from our campus prompt us to reflect on many things as educators. We ask ourselves if our security measures are enough. We wonder how we would react in a similar situation. Could we keep our students safe? Would we have the courage to trade our life for theirs? Most importantly, we ask ourselves how we can prevent something like this from happening here. Having procedures and plans in place for the unthinkable is necessary, but how can we be proactive about ensuring that no student ever feels like the only way their voice

"If Columbus had turned back, no one would have blamed him. Of course, no one would have remembered him either." -Unknown Ignoring the questions about the historical significance of Columbus, the message here is clear: There is no harm in playing it safe, but there isn't much to be gained by it either. Our profession has come under some heat in the last decade or two as people have looked around at how rapidly the world is changing as schools have largely stayed exactly the same. For any veteran teacher, this may sound absurd because we all see changes thrown at us every year (RtI, Common Core, PARCC, Danielson, etc.), but to anyone looking at our profession from the outside, these changes aren't noticeable or nearly on par with the kinds of changes we have seen as a society in the same time span.  Let me be clear; I am not advocating for change simply for the sake of change. I believe that if something works, you don't fix it, but I think it would be fo

"Who stops being better stops being good." -Oliver Cromwell I have spent a good portion of my week having pre-observation conferences with the teachers who are up for evaluation this year. I don't enjoy the evaluation process, but that is only because I know teachers don't enjoy it. I wish I could enjoy it. I wish it required less paperwork and hoop jumping. I wish it was something teachers could enjoy. We want students to enjoy learning, and learning is just another word for growing. We grow by identifying things we haven't mastered and learning to master them. Students probably wouldn't enjoy growing if they had to do it the way we do it either.  I'm not a fan of pointing out problems without identifying solutions, so here is my solution. I am going to give my absolute best effort to make the evaluation process feel as much like learning and growing as possible. I am going to work to shift the focus from the process to the possibilities. Inst

"I cannot change the world, but I can change a small part of it." -Kay Florentino As we approach the 16th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, a day which we now recognize as Patriot's Day and honor with a national day of service, I think it is a great time to write about the importance of modeling service for our students and to roll out plans for getting our students out in the community to serve. Times of national tragedy or natural disaster terrible and heartbreaking, but they also give us a glimpse at what the communities that make up our country are really capable of. When we turn on the TV and see images of people simply helping people, regardless of skin color, religion, political affiliation, or any host of a dozen other identifiers we are lead to believe make us different, it is hard to imagine that any of the vitriol we see and hear on the news and on social media could exist in such a time and place. There is something about helping people in

"Knowledge is proud that it knows so much; wisdom is humble that it knows no more." -William Cowper I am going to use this post to gush a little bit about the amazing faculty and staff we have here at Sullivan Middle School. This past week has not been the most fun. We have been doing MAP testing all week, so there were some technology hurdles to overcome and energy has been drained. However, the feedback that I received was very positive. Sure, there are some tweeks that we will make for the next round to make it better, but the thing that impressed me the most was the willingness of our teachers to seek information on their own. When they didn't know something, they asked. That is great for two reasons: First off, we have teachers who take the initiative. They did not just sit back and wait to be told. Second, we have teachers who are not to proud to admit they don't know the answer and who are willing to go seek that answer.  I have had several new teach