Inside the Trenches of the Principal: Week 24

It was certainly a unique way to come back to school this week after the winter break. And no, I don’t mean the frigid temperatures that led to a two-hour delay each day. I mean our House Party to kick off our newly installed Houses!

The Houses has been a piece of my roll-out plan since I got this job, as it’s been an integral part of my life since 2010 working at the Ron Clark Academy. But instead of bringing it on in August, I needed to have a group around me who could support this vision and be at the forefront of the creation. I had a dedicated group of teachers who committed to this effort who spent the better part of late October through December designing the House system and roll out to the staff. After a fun House day for teachers and staff in December, the plans began for the student party that we had this week.

In the end, it honestly wasn’t anything complicated. Music, lights, and balloons (more on that later), coupled with dancing and big smiles made the kids excited for this new piece of the school. We unveiled the five House Crests (shout out to Ms. Wiles and Ms. Parker for making that happen!) and our new school nickname and mascot, voted upon by students. Then our students broke into their Houses and had their first House meeting where they learned their House’s symbol, handshake, chant, cheer, and so on.

I definitely reflected upon a few things from this experience:

1) Kids buy in so much more when adults do.
2) Balloons with 600 kids is the worst idea ever. We had a balloon drop during the party and you would have thought I was dropping hundred dollar bills. No more balloon drops as a whole school.
3) When you have a group of dedicated adults leading a charge, you don’t need to micromanage. Trust and belief goes a long way as a leader!

The Moore Magic is definitely an appropriate nickname for our school because in five short months, there has been nothing short of magic that has been going on! To make the amount of things occur that we have shows that I have a team of #MagicMakers. I have staff members open to putting in the extra hours to transform their classrooms, brighten the hallways, and create memorable lessons. Beyond the building, we are building an array of community #MagicMakers! I was able to unveil our new school wheel, created by the husband of one of my teachers and two of his friends. They volunteered their time and skills to make this happen for our kids!

I was also elated to have my good friend Todd Nesloney visit Moore this week. Todd is the author of Kids Deserve It and the principal of Webb Elementary in Texas. When I think of the things that we’ve been doing at Moore and the ridiculous amount of extra hours that my staff is putting in, I can only think that the most relevant rationale for it is because simply … kids deserve it!

Our five House crests along with our new Moore Magic logo!

Todd Nesloney, author of Kids Deserve It

Thank you Bryan Timmons, Mike Bridges, & Chris Nixon for building the wheel and Ms. Wiles for painting it!