SMS Principal Blog

“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.”  ― John Bunyan Let me start by thanking all of you for your willingness to do things like service day. It very simply does not happen without your willingness to do so. As I made my way around to visit as many of our groups as possible today, I couldn't help be energized by how much energy I saw our kids putting into their various tasks. Some people may look at a day like today and believe we wasted a day with no learning, but I would contend that our students learned a great deal through today's activities.  They learned the meaning of #OneTribe. They learned that even at 10-14 years old, they are an important part of their community, and they can make a positive impact on the world around them. They learned that many hands can truly make light work. The students out at the lake learned that when you leave trash behind, someone has to clean it up, and they learned that s...

"Give people high fives just for getting out of bed. Being a person is hard sometimes." -Kid President I don't know what it is about short weeks, but they sure can seem long sometimes. Last week was a struggle for me because I wasn't physically able to do everything I wanted to do. I was relying heavily on pain killers and muscle relaxers just to get dressed and get myself to work. The entire week was a struggle for me. When Friday afternoon rolled around, I could sense that for different reasons, many of you were on the struggle bus with me. It was a short week. It should've been easy, but there we were, grinding through the last few minutes of the work week like shell shocked survivors of a natural disaster, so I decided to go around and give everyone a high five.  I don't know why, but it just seemed like everyone could use a high five. I get lots of them throughout the day. For some reason, middle school kids like to give the principal a high five...

"It's not what you look at that matters; it's what you see." -Henry David Thoreau The landscape of public education, perhaps particularly in Illinois, though I know many other states are facing similarly difficult situations, is littered with obstacles that we must overcome. It is the reason so many are choosing to leave the profession and many more are choosing to not even consider it to begin with. I loved my time in the classroom. There are very few feelings that match the exhileration of leading a classroom full of kids through a bell-to-bell lesson of genuine engagement and enthusiasm. I've had few experiences as humbling as having a former student relay to me the impact I had on their lives. The irony is that in many cases, these were the students I was absolutely certain I had failed to reach at all. Most days, I spend at least a few moments wishing I was still in the classroom. The truth is that I envy the position all of you are in. I didn'...

"Most good relationships are built on mutual trust and respect." -Mona Sutphen I'm not sure what I would've written about this week if yesterday had gone differently. It's possible I would've written something about the importance of getting our kids to see Sullivan as home so that 20 years from now our best and brightest are already here for homecoming week rather than hoping to see them drop by for the football game on Friday night before heading back to some other town they have chosen to call home. I think those things are important, and I will likely write about them in a future post, but after what we experience here in the office last week, I just want to leave you all with the following words of encouragement: 1. Build relationships with your students. It is so critical that our kids feel they have at least one adult in our building that genuinely cares about them. Try to be that adult for as many kids as you can. Look for opportunities to conne...