Falcon Friday is #FalconStrong

If we have learned nothing else about our school over the last week, my hope is that we learned that we are #BetterTogether and that we can build a sense of #CommUNITY through our words and actions.  Last Friday, it was amazing to see hallways full of blue #FalconStrong shirts!  It was even more fun to see the pictures and moments posted on Twitter and Instagram of classes, homerooms, and whole teams participating in the day together!

This week brought new events to celebrate.  As we prepare for our Mini-THON next week, I think the idea of CommUNITY offers a new perspective.

Today, I had the opportunity to share some of my thoughts about why we have a Mini-THON.  Mini-THON is so much bigger than me, us, Cedar Crest Middle School.  Mini-THON isn't about how much money we raise or how long we stand on our feet or what t-shirt design we wear.  Mini-THON is about coming together as a CommUNITY to make a difference for children who have cancer and the families that support them.

Sometimes our Four Diamonds Families are people we know, and sometimes they are strangers.  Sometimes they are toddlers, and sometimes they are teenagers.  Sometimes they are boys, and sometimes they are girls.  But, when they stand on our stage and tell us their heroic stories, they are people.  People who work in our community, attend our school, play on our team, live in our neighborhood, and share our world.

Mini-THON is about CommUNITY...Mini-THON is a perfect example of everything we asked our community leaders to define for us last week:  How can we, at Cedar Crest Middle School, make a difference and build a better community?  Serve...Give...Care...Lead...

The messages of kindness, acceptance, tolerance, inclusion, and compassion from our CommUNITY Day ring true in any situation, and on any occasion...But, couple it with an amazing opportunity for our students to put it into action for the most worthwhile cause...Kids helping kids...Breaking down walls...Searching for a better tomorrow...Building community...That is what it is all about! 

Mini-THON will always be one of the best "YES" answers that I ever gave at Cedar Crest Middle School.  Nine years ago as a first-year principal, I did not know what I was saying "yes" to--but now I have learned...I said yes to nine years of dancing, fun, compassion, and kindness...Nine years of teaching students to think beyond themselves and to put others first...Nine years of building community...Nine years of teaching students that they matter, and they do make a difference!

Proud to be FTK (For The Kids)!

FalconsCARE CommUNITY Day

In our business of school, there are teachable moments all around us.  It is not unique to our school or any specific day.  Today, though, was a very special opportunity to use a teachable moment and make it something more meaningful than we could have anticipated.

As schools across the country were preparing for potential student walkouts, our school embraced the idea of student voice through a CommUNITY Day.  Using our FalconsCARE groups and teams, we took advantage of a teachable moment to talk about how to build unity, how to improve our school, how to come together instead of tear each other down.

In a very short period of time (less than two weeks)--with a wonderful team of teachers and a great effort from Student Council--our focus was on POSITIVE outcomes and how we can all MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

We were so fortunate to have Senator Mike Folmer, Representative Frank Ryan, Judge Charlie Jones, District Attorney Dave Arnold, Corporal Wade Achey of the South Lebanon Township Police Department, Cornwall-Lebanon School Police Officers Justin Schlottman and Steve Tribiloli, Superintendent Dr. Phil Domencic, and Cedar Crest High School Principal, Mrs. Nicole Malinoski participating in our video and graciously giving their time to our project.  What a fantastic opportunity for our students to hear from influential community leaders!  We are grateful to each of them for sharing their experiences, ideas, and advice.

The video and Power Point are available at the following links:  https://youtu.be/ZsEqcv40S_Q
and https://youtu.be/hQKZqseTfYM.

A tremendous THANK YOU to Chris Muritz, Pam Raytick, Mark Wojdyla, Travis Gundrum, Chad Hibshman, Dan Stoddard, Chris Groff, and Ben Wohlberg for their time, effort, and ideas to make this activity possible.  We are very grateful to Mr. Muritz and Mrs. Raytick for spending their snow day, evenings, and late nights working on the video, interviews, questions, and Power Point.  Huge shout out to Mr. Wojdyla and the CCMS Student Council for their wonderful ideas and legwork to bring all of this together!  A special thanks to Mrs. Young for coordinating all of our AV equipment and technology to make sure that everyone had the opportunity to see and hear the fabulous messages shared in our video. 

We work in such an amazing place…Thanks for being part of our CommUNITY!  

As a principal, the idea of a blog has always seemed overwhelming to me.  Just one more thing to do when there are so many other things that need to be done.  I've been thinking about it for a long time--always thinking that I would do it "when I get around to it."

But, today...Today was a different kind of day.  Today was a day when I realized that I had some amazing things to share, and I needed a way to tell people about the PHENOMENAL things that happened in our school!

March is Music in Our Schools Month.  Each Friday of March features our talented musicians playing in our Commons Area to start the day.  As I listen to their performances each week, I am in awe of their talent, so grateful for their willingness to play for us, and impressed by the beautiful music that graces our hallways.

Today, we started our day with the Falcon Ensemble serenading us with their beautiful music.  Our coffee shop, The Swoop, was open, and as a school community, we were able to gather together and start our morning.  What an incredible start to the day!

I was also invited to see student agency in action today!  Our building has been talking a lot about the role of agency and motivation in the learning process.  Our 6th-grade science teachers created a project around their astronomy unit that embraces student choice, student interest, and student learning!  As I spent three periods this morning rotating from room to room, I saw students from each of our teams interacting with staff and students from each of the other teams learning together, showcasing their knowledge, demonstrating their learning through their preferred medium, and having a GREAT time doing it!

The students were engaged, motivated, and invested while being thoughtful, asking and answering EXCELLENT questions, and showing their knowledge of TinkerCad, Buncee, PowerPoint, Weebly, and Office 365!

As my heart just filled with pride watching our students showcase their knowledge, I couldn't help but think that THIS is what school SHOULD be!  The concept of student agency as a means to motivate and engage students is so POWERFUL!  I am so grateful to these three teachers for taking a risk, trying something new, and finding wonderful ways to appeal to our students' aptitudes, interests, and talents!

And honestly--that should be enough to make any ordinary day EXTRAORDINARY!  But, there is so much more that happened today that was incredible, uplifting, and powerful.  I could go on and on about the wonderful things I witnessed JUST today...

Today gave me a good perspective--a much-needed boost at the end of a long winter--to reflect on the AMAZING school culture that we have created...to be thoughtful about the FABULOUS opportunities that we are offering to our students...to remember the importance of the crucial job we have!  It's not just about creating good students...We are responsible for helping to shape good PEOPLE with strong community connections and relationships; we need to teach students to look for the good in each other, embrace and accept each other's differences, and treat each other with KINDNESS!