Keep Your Eye on the Prize - October/November 2007

Brian Friddle, Superintendent

 

Are you busy? I know that for me, certain days keep me running from one thing to the next. And I know that our staff is tremendously busy preparing for the students to come to class each day. I see the students are busy with school and homework assignments, after school activities, athletics, clubs, and other outside obligations. How do we prioritize all of the things that we do? We need to remember to keep our eye on the prize.

 

For everyone participating in the educational setting, that prize is literacy and academic achievement. Achieving this goal will provide future opportunity and choice for the students that we are preparing for life after high school. As educators, our focus has to be on providing an environment filled with activities that will assist students with literacy and academic achievement. Prioritizing this goal, and aligning all that we do to focus on this goal, is a necessity.

 

When you think about literacy and academic achievement, you may wonder why school districts do all of the other things included in a typical school day such as elective and exploratory classes, fine arts, athletics, and clubs? I believe these activities provide motivation, engagement, and much of the time a process for applying the various things that we are trying to teach in the classroom, in other words, life lessons. These life lessons help to mold and shape a student, assist them in learning citizenship, and teach them to become community minded. These activities address some of the other goals that we have for students such as becoming life long learners, collaborative workers, problem solvers, and critical thinkers.

 

Opportunity is a theme that you will hear me talk about from time to time, because if we are keeping our eye on the prize, opportunity will be the result of our investment. Opportunity in school is designed to engage students in the educational process in order to meet the objective of literacy and academic achievement. The involvement with fine arts, sports, clubs, and work provide avenues for students to implement and try out many of the new things that they are learning. It is our desire to engage students in this educational process using various means to allow them to be prepared for new opportunities as they transition out of high school into their next adventure in life.