Cherokee Trail

The Principal Chronicles continue ... As I write this, it is Wednesday morning and the weather outside is supposed to be beautiful today, close to 80. I love to see the environment around us start to turn green. It also means we are smack in the middle of the busiest time of year. It seems as though just about everything happens in April and May of the school year. Lots of events, lots of things due, and lots of expectations for everyone. As for me, I am basically living in two different years. Trying to wrap up this year and prep for next year. As I said, it is a very interesting time of year. I had a teacher come and visit me this morning to share some feedback on how I can be a better leader of our school. As many of you know I love getting feedback because I want to be the best and the only way to improve is by feedback. As we talked it dawned on me how lucky I am to be a part of this school and community. As I wrap up my fourth year here at Cherokee Trail, many times I fail to look back and see how far we have come. I have been extremely fortunate to work with dedicated and caring people for the entire time I have been at Cherokee Trail. In reflecting, I think I sometimes take that for granted. Our staff is so good in so many ways that all of the outstanding things they do just become routine and expected. I've thought that when you look for greatness, you always find it. I guess sometimes I forget to look. I have a lot to be thankful for and I am a very lucky person.

• I am thankful for a kindergarten team who spent hours preparing to greet our incoming kindergarten class
• I am thankful for a 1st grade team who consistently push each other to be the best versions of themselves as teachers
• I am thankful for a 2nd grade team who goes out of their way to support one another each and every day
• I am thankful for a 3rd grade team who have been tinkering with a personalized teaching approach for nearly the entire year
• I am thankful for a 4th grade team who came from three different states but have come together to develop a team approach to better meet the needs of their students
• I am thankful for a 5th grade team who has secretly worked for an entire year adding beauty to our front entrance
• I am thankful for a 6th grade team who constantly exposes our students to solving problems both inside and outside of our school
• I am thankful a specials team who despite being together for over a decade still look for new ways to engage our students
• I am thankful for a SPED team who never gives up on kids and works endlessly to help our students succeed
• I am thankful for an ELL team who has figured out a way to communicate with students and families eliminating any language barriers.
• I am thankful for a reading recovery team who spend every minute they have with students, purposefully helping them learn to read
• I am thankful for our RTI/GT coordinator who somehow takes all of our data and makes it into easy actionable steps to follow
• I am thankful for a Speech team who consistently create new activities to help our students with their language
• I am thankful for a mental health team who tries so hard to meet with our kids and balance testing
• I am thankful for an SSN program that focuses on high expectations for kids
• I am thankful for a librarian who codes with our students as much as she checks out books
• I am thankful for our team of EA I's for doing so many great things for kids that no one knows they do
• I am thankful for a team for EA IV's who consistently and seamlessly support our students and support each other
• I am thankful for an office staff who basically holds this building together
• I am thankful for a building engineer who takes care of all the things no one else wants to take care of
• I am thankful for a kitchen staff who cares about our students' health
• I am thankful for a before and after care program where the students are truly loved
• I am thankful for our three preschools who love our littlest learner like their own students
• I am thankful for our CRT for not only fixing my podcasts but also making sure the nonsense I type for the Chronicles makes sense
• I am thankful for an assistant principal who makes me a better leader
• I am thankful for a school filled with students who wonder about the world and work as hard as they can to make their brains grow
• I am thankful to be in a community which supports us and all of the fun things we do

Like I said, I am a very lucky person. Until next time, when the Principal Chronicles continue ...