The Summer Blogging Challenge

Sunday, July 1, 2012 by jethrojones

Accepted a summer blogging challenge. 

I decided to accept a challenge from Melinda Miller to blog twice a week this summer.

First, I thought I would give an update as to where I am and what I am doing.

In September of last year, I accepted a position as an assistant principal in an elementary school in my district. This is where I want to be, and it is truly amazing. I am so glad to be here. I didn't think that I would like elementary school as much as I do, but I really enjoy it. Being a middle school teacher, I didn't think that I would enjoy all these little kids, but they are a lot of fun. I do miss the conversations about ideas that you have with older students (which was still very infrequent in the middle school).

I have known for a long time that I wanted to be a school administrator. Here are the things that I love most about my job, in no particular order:


  1. Being around kids again. They are fun, and I love seeing them learn. 
  2. Helping adults and kids solve problems. We all have problems, and it doesn't take a genius to solve it, but it does take a listening ear. 
  3. Building a culture. This will happen more when I am a principal on my own, but my principal is great and shares my philosophy, so it is a ton of fun.
  4. Every day is new and exciting. One day could be filled with a lot of discipline issues, another day with a lot of teacher observations, another day with a lot of counseling with teachers or kids, another day immersed in data and interpreting and analyzing it, and another day can be a mixture of all that. I love that things change all the time. 
  5. A new perspective. Elementary school is the foundation. It is where immense learning and changes happen. Kindergartners go from having baby-fat chubby faces to losing that baby-fat while they are learning to read. It is exciting.
  6. Family atmosphere. With a smaller faculty, and fewer kids, we feel much for familial than in a middle school. That is neat to experience. I really care about these teachers and students. I feel like I still have a chance to make a difference in their lives. 
There is a lot more that I love about being here, but those are the big things for now. Some of the challenges I have faced, again, in no particular order:
  1. I still don't get elementary school. There are things that happen that I just don't pay much attention to, and I need to start getting with the program. There are other things that I notice that some elementary people don't notice, so it is a good perspective, but challenging nonetheless.
  2. Curriculum. I am learning, but it takes time to figure out literacy and how kids should learn. I don't know where I would be if I weren't in EBL last year. I learned so much there, and I am so grateful I had that opportunity to learn. 
There are more challenges, as well, but those are the big ones. 

Have a Good Life.

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