SMS Principal Blog

"A strong working relationship requires every participant to be on the same page." -Dinsh Paliwal One of the things I love the most about working here are the relationships that exist among the faculty and staff. Many of you have been working together for most, if not all, of your careers, and those relationships extend beyond the work day. When I am interviewing candidates for positions here, and they ask about the culture among the staff, it is easy for me to gush about how much you all enjoy working together, and I truly believe that you do.  That isn't to say there aren't areas where we still need to focus on getting more aligned, especially with the number of new-- or new to us-- faculty members we have added this year and will continue to add next year. With all of the newness, I have failed as a leader to ensure this same pagedness has taken place, and I intend to improve that as we move into next year. I am going to need your help. As we make our wa...

"There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning." -Jiddu Krishnamurti Between now and the last day of school, we have only one full work week with our students. Of the partial weeks remaining, several will also have bits of instructional time carved away for other endeavors, like our IAR Reward and Service Day this week. As a classroom teacher, I understand the time crunch that comes at the end of the year, and as a building leader, I understand the importance of protecting instructional time, but I would also argue that time taken away from typical classroom instruction is not a loss of learning. There is so much learning that can take place by stepping away from the classroom, and often times those breaks from the typical school day enhance the learning that can happen when we return. By taking the time to go o...

"Good things happen when you get your priorities straight." -Scott Caan While the guy who played Tweeter in Varsity Blues  isn't exactly blowing minds with this particular quote, it is a simple truth worth reflecting upon from time to time. During a recent interview with a candidate for one of our open positions, I was asked about our "Commendable" recognition and our solid test scores. I gave him a condensed version of  this. I know that IAR testing is eating up a lot of valuable instructional time, but I don't want that to trick us into thinking IAR testing is what we do or why we do it. I firmly believe that if we focus our attention on doing what is right for our students each and every day, the state identifiers and test scores will take care of themselves. So, as we head into this final week of testing, my challenge to you is to not let the 90 minute test drive the entire rest of the day because it is the rest of the day that matters the most....