I am working in the best school in all the regions and for the best principal in the system. I’m not one to throw around superlatives but I really believe it’s true. When I first arrived at this school, I was told by some of the other math teachers that our principal is one of the best managers they have ever met. They are both career changers who worked for major corporations. I listened, not yet fully comprehending what that meant, but the more I work with my principal, the more I see what they were saying. Here is a person that actively involves himself with his teachers, staff, and students. During recess, you will see him playing games with the kids. At lunch, he is monitoring the cafeteria. Every other week he conducts a staff meeting and every week he meets with teachers individually, also observing their classes once a week. Here is a person who cares on a micro-level about the people in his school. Every one matters. Every one is important. He conveys a deep understanding of human nature, behavior and psychology.
I have an elective to teach and it was the principal that suggested that I start a City Harvest program at the school (it was on my resume). I agreed and got it together. He was totally open-minded about bringing community service to the school. Then it was evident to me that here is an exceptional principal. He was able to see one of my skills and apply it in a different context. Not only did he analyze the situation well, but he had the foresight to see something larger than ourselves. What a powerful combination – getting kids to volunteer, to feed the hungry, to help the homeless. He is a visionary. He could see the big picture, how this would be a great program for the student population (he knows his students.) Sure enough, we had more than enough kids sign up for City Harvest, we had to turn some away from the program. This would be a tremendous pilot program for other schools to adopt.
This week we kicked off the program with peanut butter, jelly, Wonder bread. The kids got themselves good and messy. We projected that we would be able to make eighty sandwiches during the sixth period. Forty minutes into the period, forty eight middle-schoolers made over one hundred sandwiches for the hungry and homeless of New York City. Somehow in all the noise and chaos, we made sandwiches, cleaned up the classroom, and packed the PB&Js for delivery. We did what we set out to accomplish with time to spare.
We walked our first group of eight children to the local shelter, which was about five blocks away from the school. The kids insisted on carrying the bags of thirty one pounds of PB&Js all the way to the shelter. We arrived at the shelter and unpacked the bags at the kitchen. We dropped off twenty two containers of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Each container held eight sandwiches and the kids did the math — one hundred and seventy six sandwiches! We hit double our target for the week.
It feels good doing good.
1 Comment:
1 northbrooklyn
· Sep 29, 2006 at 6:29 pm
What is the name of your school?
You are lucky. I have many friends in business [managers] and they just flip when I describe a typical day in my school. They shake their collective heads and say, ‘you either got it or you don’t'…most principals and assistants [managers] don’t got it and never will.
One one of the blogs-perhaps this one- the teachers print out copies for the entertainment of their principals. The teachers claim their principal thinks the behavior of the majority of administrators in our system is so stupid as to be wicked funny.