What is Normal?

“If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” 
― Maya Angelou

It has been quite awhile since we have had a "normal" week at Sullivan Middle School. In fact, through the first half of the year, we've had very few "normal" weeks. Between testing, holidays, parent/teacher conferences, snow days, ice days, cold days, and the myriad of other random things that knock our schedule out of whack, it is rare for us to have a five day week of pure instructional time. 

But here's the deal: We are a middle school. There is nothing normal about middle school. Our kids are in the most awkward, in-between time in their lives, and for many of them, being "weird" or "totally random" is a badge of honor. How great is that? The thing that I have come to love the most about working in a middle school is how not normal it is. I love that we can relate to our kids like miniature adults but that I also see them skipping in the hallways when they don't think anyone is watching. Some of the most amazing things I've seen happen in our building happened when we did something not so normal, so I say we embrace it. We have a normal schedule this week, but let's make it anything but normal; let's make it amazing.

The first three SMS faculty members to post a comment about something amazingly not normal that has happened in our building this year will get one period of classroom coverage from me after evaluation season is over. I'm going to be pretty busy until then.

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 22, 2018 at 6:56 AM

    I would have to say that Tech Day was amazingly not normal! I've never seen anything like this done before and because of Annie and Val's insane amount of work in advance, the students and staff really appeared to enjoy themselves. There were several "goosebumps" moments for me listening to the students talk about what they made or discovered after the day was over. Activities like these can really make a school come together and feel a sense of pride.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mr. OgleJanuary 22, 2018 at 6:57 AM

      I agree that Tech Day was definitely not normal, and I really enjoyed seeing students teaching students.

      Delete

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