SMS Principal Blog

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." -Albert Einstein As I sit in my office on what is turning out to be the nicest day of spring so far, I am fighting the impulse to spend the afternoon observing the PE classes that are enjoying the weather over at the park. I'm probably not alone. I walked the building earlier today, and while there was real, quality teaching and learning happening in every classroom, the windows were all open, and I could tell that everyone, students and teachers alike, would rather be outside. So, now I have a crazy idea. What if we had a day where we literally held every class outside? We wouldn't even bring the kids in for passing periods. We would plan our lessons to use minimal materials. Teachers would have a designated "classroom" in the park where we could transport some boxes of whatever materials you would need (textbooks, etc). Kids would bring iPads, and we would run our entire da...

"The secret of joy in work is contained in one word-- excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it." -Pearl S. Buck As many of you know, I have been conducting interviews for our open teaching positions over the last few weeks, and it is both a very exciting and very stressful process. On the one hand, it is exciting to think about the fact that I may be meeting a teacher who goes on to spend three decades leaving a lasting legacy on Sullivan Middle School. I mean really, who hasn't looked at some great person with a tremendous career and wondered what it would have been like to meet them at the beginning, before they were a legend? Just me? Ok, but I do it anyway, so there is part of me that really enjoys the interview process because every candidate who walks through the door could be that future SMS teaching legend, and they don't even know it about themselves yet.  The other side of me finds the process very stressful because I know the h...

"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward." -Vernon Law This year seems to have had more disruptions to our "normal" schedule than usual. Some of this has been due to circumstances outside of our control (testing schedules, emergency evacuations, etc.) while others have been due to the opportunity given to use by outside resources paying to send speakers to share their knowledge and experiences with our students. I also know that some of them have been due to my idea to bring a focus on service to our school.  If you are one of the teachers who finds these interruptions frustrating, know that I hear you. There is a lot of pressure on educators to get students to certain benchmarks by certain points in their education. However, I also believe that there is tremendous learning that takes place when we take students out of the classroom and into the real world. Often this learning cannot be measure on a standardized...

"When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another." - Helen Keller Here we are in the white flag lap of this school year. Growing up, this was the time of year when my dad would give my brothers and I a big speech about finishing strong and sprinting through the finish. I thought it was cheesy at the time, but as he likes to point out, none of us have been arrested, and we all have college degrees, so he did something right. As I've gotten older, I see the wisdom in his annual speech.  As the weather gets warmer and we have more and more conversations about planning for next year, it is easy to lose focus on the work that still lies ahead for this year. The small battles you have been waging for our students' futures over the course of the year are not over, and in a lot of ways the additional ground you gain with them over the closing weeks of this year will benefit them in the opening weeks of next y...

"Time moves slowly but passes quickly." -Alice Walker Perhaps there is no better time than this past week to point out how complicated human beings can be. In the same week that we are grumbling about how hard it is to adjust to jumping forward one hour, I know most of us are quietly-- or not so quietly-- wishing we could just set our clocks forward one full week to get to spring break. Either way, it will be here before we know it, and like always, it will be over even quicker than that. There is no doubt that time will continue to fly over the final weeks of school, and I know all of you are going to be feeling the pressure of making sure we have our students as prepared as possible for next year, but don't stress too much. You've all had a great year, and our students are making great progress toward our goals for them. Keep up the good work. We have just one short week before we get a little rest to help us get through the final sprint of this school year. ...

"Standardized testing is at cross purposes with many of the most important purposes of public education. It doesn't measure big-picture learning, critical thinking, perseverance, problem solving, creativity or curiosity, yet those are the qualities great teaching brings out in a student." -Randi Weingarten Here is a humorous look at standardized testing as we kick off PARCC testing: I think there are some who believe this is the approach we have or should have toward standardized testing. I believe that if we focus on real teaching and learning, standardized testing will take care of itself, and as far as I am concerned, you have done some great teaching, so it stands to reason that our students have done some great learning. For that reason, my only goal through this PARCC testing experience to simply ensure that we administer the test with fidelity. I believe our results will speak for themselves.

"Great people are those who can make others feel that they, too, can become great." -Mark Twain As I sit here on Friday afternoon reflecting on the past week, there are three big things that stand out in my mind. The first is the most obvious. In the wake of another tragic act of violence at a school in Florida, we had concerns of our own addressed here in our school community. Fortunately, our concerns were comparatively minor and easily addressed, but it does lead me to think of the second big thing that stands out from this week. Yesterday, Mark Waelde (hat tip) sent the video I've included below to our administrative team with the comment that he only sees the second half of the video here in our schools and commended our staff for making this a great place for kids. I echo his sentiment. I commented back to him that the first part of the video seemed really awkward and foreign to me, which I guess is a pretty good sign that I don't see that behavior ...