SMS Principal Blog

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” ― Benjamin Franklin Last week, I was walking the building, and I had a teacher invite me to join her class in a little game they were playing, so I did, and it was great. It gave me a chance to interact with kids in a way that I generally don't have the opportunity to do, and from the standpoint of really getting to observe a teacher, doing so in the role of a student was really great. I would like to do more of this, so as you are planning your lessons for the rest of the year, keep me in mind. If you see something that would be a good opportunity for me to interact with and experience your class as a student, send me an email, and I will try to plug it in. I can't promise I will always be able to make it, but I am much more likely to get in there if I can plug it into my calendar. This is not required and is not part of the evaluation process nor do I only want to get into classrooms of teach

"Commendable: Deserving of High Regard or Great Approval" -Webster's Dictionary The Illinois State Board of Education has officially recognized our efforts here at Sullivan Middle School as "Commendable". This is the second highest rating available, which is a good thing. While I believe that our work here is much more than "Commendable", I have no qualms with the designation. There is nothing shameful about the definition of Commendable, so I am actually quite proud to earn the title, but it is human nature to look at what the next highest designation would be. I am sure that if we really decided to put our minds to it, we could achieve "Exemplary". In case you are curious, here are the descriptors of the designations. Exemplary Performance in the top 10% of all schools High schools with graduation rate higher than 67% No underperforming student groups at or below the "all students" group in the lowes

"The journey is never ending. There's always gonna be growth, improvement, adversity; you just gotta take it all in and do what's right, continue to grow, continue to live in the moment." -Antonio Brown Normally, I try to limit my use of athlete quotes to truly transcendent athletes, but in this case, I have to make an exception because Antonio Brown's quote here was just too spot on for the thoughts running through my head today. I just finished my first round of formal observations of the year, and while it is a process that I know creates a lot of stress for teachers, I couldn't help but feel really good about the conversations I had with the teachers I met with last week. We've obviously had a lot change this year, and there has been some adversity. I can feel it when our staff feels like they are at a breaking point in terms of all we are expected to do. We were at one of those points just a few weeks ago. It may not have affected all of you, b