Growing Pains

"You take the good. You take the bad. You take them both, and there you have the facts of life."
~Gloria Loring

With so much going on as we kick off the 18-19 school year, it was hard for me to come up with a single theme for my first Weekly Message of the school year. I used the title of one 80's TV show for a title and the lyrics from the theme song of another 80's theme song as the quote of the week, and I have the lyrics from an REO Speedwagon song from the late 70's stuck in my head ("Roll With the Changes" for those playing along). Like the thoughts running through my head, this week was a little all over the place, but to be honest, it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. I'll go ahead and say it now that I know everything is going to be ok.... I spent most of the summer terrified that I would not have this building as prepared as we needed to be for all this year had in store for us, but I was forgetting one amazing detail-- ALL OF YOU!

This faculty and staff came in here and did exactly what you have proven you can do in the face of every challenge that comes your way-- you absolutely crushed it! I seriously cannot even believe how well you all "rolled with the changes" and almost entirely eliminated any "growing pains" we may have had. I don't know what I did to get so lucky to be able to work with all of you, but I sure am glad I (no doubt accidentally) did it.

With all of that said, I'm also very much aware that not every change we have this year is on everyone's list of favorite things. I get it. Change isn't always fun, but it is sometimes necessary, and not all positive changes are without collateral damage. In order to have the positive impact of students getting a double-dose of Math, all of our other classes lost precious minutes. In order to make space for recess for our youngest students, we had to combine music and PE, which created some new obstacles and headaches, but as the song goes, "You take the good. You take the bad." It truly is a fact of life that everything is a trade off. Is the juice worth the squeeze? I'm thrilled about the changes we have in store this year because I think that every single one of them results in a net positive for our students, and I know that our faculty and staff will adapt and overcome as we work through the finer details of delivering a quality education to each one of our students. 

The best thing about this faculty is the approach you all take to these challenges. Instead of focusing on why something will not work, you all embrace the challenge of figuring out a way to make it work. The world is full of problem identifiers, so it is refreshing for me to work in a building full of problem solvers. The world needs more of what you all do here at SMS, and I grateful to be a part of it. 

Here's to another great week!

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