From the Principal’s Desk

Entertainers?

This past Thursday, I had a conversation with one of our high school students. During our discussion, she mentioned how much she missed her elementary days. She further explained she missed the days of having fun. I reminded her this was a school and not a cineplex, and she then explained a little further. She said in elementary she felt like she was learning, but she did so while still having fun. She continued by saying, “kind of like in chemistry. We have fun, but we still learn.” I started thinking about this a little more after our conversation ended.

We are not entertainers. That is not the gig, but we do have to grab and maintain the attention of our audience. For some of us, that comes naturally because of who we are. For some of us, it comes easy because of what we do or teach. But for some of us, we have to really work hard and think outside of that box everyone talks about in order to ensure that our students are paying attention so that they can learn what we are trying to share.

In my years in education, I have found that when one is struggling to find an answer as to how to improve in their craft they need look no further than their own campus. In Cherokee, that statement remains true. My secondary peeps, there is great value in visiting an elementary class to watch how stations work. Elementary folks, believe it or not, we have some creative approaches in the secondary as well.

All this to say, we have tools in our campus toolbox that we can employ if we will only reach out to find new ways to engage our learners.