It's All in the Grind

"Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way."
-Booker T. Washington

Over the last week, I spent a lot of time in a hospital. During this time, I had the opportunity to watch people in a profession other than my own go about their business. Fortunately for my father, these people were excellent at what they do. In fact, they are to excellent that the procedure done on my father can only be accomplished in two hospitals in the state-- talk about doing something in an uncommon way. More than once during the eight days we spent at the hospital, this team of surgeons were in the operating room well past midnight, and every time, they were right back at work the next day seeing patients. That is what excellence looks like. Excellence doesn't hit cruise control or take the morning off after a tough day. Excellence is a grind. It is exhausting. That is why so few people are excellent.

I believe our staff at Sullivan Middle School is excellent. I think that our teachers do things for kids that teachers in other buildings just don't do. I see it every day. I am so proud to work with such dedicated educators. 

In what seems like the blink of an eye, we find ourselves in November. As I write this, we have fewer than 30 days left with our students in the classroom before the semester ends. This is where the grind sets in. I know that many of you are getting tired. The weather is changing, the days seem shorter, and it starts to feel like there is more to do than there is time in which to do it. This is where it becomes very tempting to hit "cruise", but I want to take this time to encourage you. I want you to remember that you are not common. You are extraordinary. Our team is extraordinary, and our students are lucky beyond their wildest dreams to be in your classrooms. The challenges aren't going away, but I want you to have the mindset that those challenges are right now thinking "Those teachers at SMS aren't going away." We are bigger and stronger and more determined than any challenge we face. We have 30 days left. I think we can do more in 30 days than most schools do in an entire semester, so keep your heads up and your focus sharp because you are doing incredible work.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'm Full of It

Image
"Teaching should be full of ideas instead of stuffed with facts." -Unknown I remember having to memorize all sorts of things in school. At one point, I could recite the first 30-some elements of the periodic table, all of the state capitals, the presidents in order, and the states in alphabetical order. I can still do the state thing, which blows my wife away because they did not sing that particular song at her Catholic elementary school. My kids probably can't do any of those things, but I see them doing things that I couldn't have even begun to attempt at their age. The age of information is transforming our relationship with information, with facts. There was a time when memorizing the periodic table may have been helpful because it saved you the time of pulling out a book to find it. The investment of time to memorize it presented a positive return in the time you would save constantly having to find it. Now that we are all carrying the sum total of the co
Read more

Who, What, When, Where, Why?

"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
Read more

Oxygen Masks

"When you take care of yourself, you're a better person for others. When you feel good about yourself, you treat others better. " -Solange Knowles I was reminded this morning, as I almost slid through a stop sign, that in spite of some mild weather last week, we are likely several weeks away from the end of winter. This realization kind of bummed me out, to be honest. I had already let my mind turn toward thoughts of spring activities and getting back out into the fresh air, but this morning I'm reminded that it is still January. These thoughts let me to other thoughts about how quickly January has gone. Really, as we look ahead to parent teacher conferences and then PARCC followed by Spring Break, this whole semester is likely to fly by, and we will be enjoying those warm spring days before we know it, but his week is all about heart health, and I know winter is a time where it is easy to fall into some bad habits, so much like flight attendents remind us
Read more