Leaving Is Never Easy

I have been the high school principal at Armorel School District for four years.  As of June 30th I will be the principal at Western Yell County.  Leaving a place is never easy!  As an educator you forge relationships with your staff, community, and mostly students.  The students are the hardest to say good bye to and let go of.  Armorel has been wonderful to me.  I am sorry for them that I had to cut my teeth as an administrator at this wonderful community. 

There are many people who I will miss as I leave here on to a new challenge and adventure at a wonderful school.  I am leaving a wonderful school as well.  Even though I have thanked my staff, students, fellow administrators, and community members directly they are certainly worth one more mention.  I spoke of Sally Bennett, the superintendent at Armorel in my blog earlier in the week.  She has been wonderful.  I have worked alongside two great educators in Teresa Lawrence who will replace me as high school principal and our elementary principal Joey Carr.  Everyone knows that a school does not run efficiently without a great administrative assistant.  I certainly had a great one in Mrs. Terry Tillman.  Thank you for your hard work and making my job as easy as possible.  I will miss you.

I spoke earlier of relationships that are forged in not only a school but any place of work.  I am going to speak of one particular person who would absolutely not want to be mentioned because of her modestly and humility.  Melissa Booker is the K-12 counselor at Armorel.  She is a wonderful person, mother, wife, and educator.  She is every principal's dream as a counselor and support person!  As all good school employees do she goes way beyond what is expected and is so much more than a counselor.  She is fantanstic at her job, loves kids, and has such a soft heart for them.  I spoke to regaining passion in my first blog post earlier in the week.  Melissa has such a passion for kids and what is right and fair to them.  She is a great advocate for students!  She is everything to everyone in a very small school district.  During my blog post earlier in the week I spoke of educators who have inspired me.  Mrs. Melissa Booker certainly fits into that category.  I knew I would write this post separate and thought she deserved a space to her own.  I can't thank her enough for the encouragement, support, and friendship she has afforded me over the past four years.  I will miss her greatly!

Thank you Armorel for a great four years I will always hold near and dear to my heart.

We all need Inspired!

This is my first go-round (southern term) at blogging.  It is something I have wanted to do for a long time.  With that being said it is only appropriate that I pay tribute to people that have been inspirations for me both personally and professionally.  I have often needed inspiration in recent times as educator. There have been times in the last couple of years that I have even doubted as to whether I was in the right profession.  However, I want to dedicate this blog to talk about educators and friends who have encouraged me, aided me, and most of all inspired me in renewing my passion for education.

I want to first of all thank my family. That has to start with my beautiful wife Theresa, my two great kids Aaron and Megan as well as their spouses Ashton and Will.  There is nothing more important than family!  However, they deserve an entry all to their own.  They all continue to inspire me daily. With that being said, here are six educators who have and continue to be an inspiration to me.

• Sally Bennett (@sallyebennett) has been my superintendent the last two years.  As I leave Armorel I will always be indebted to Mrs. Bennett.  She has been a tremendous influence, and given me incredible support the previous two years.  She has held me accountable and forced me to reflect in ways that I wasn't comfortable with and that has allowed me to have tremendous growth.  I am so thankful for her support as an administrator and person.  I will be forever influenced by the lessons taught to me during my time with her.  

• Daisy Dyer Duerr (@DaisyDyerDuerr) is a fellow Arkansan (Woo Pig Sooie) and educator that I recommend you follow on Twitter.  I started following Daisy two years ago during spring break.  I was pretty new to Twitter at the time, and I was looking for good educators to follow.  I have since become friends with Daisy, and she is an even better person than she is an educator.  That is saying a lot!  She is not only a fountain of knowledge but is so passionate and caring for students and their educational and personal well being.  She holds me accountable in my educational endeavors.  She once told me that I needed to get my mojo back.  She has been a wonderful inspiration but a little mean at times. Her website is daisydyerduerr.com.

• Dr. Avis Williams (@DrAvisW) is an educator in North Carolina who is a diehard Alabama Crimson Tide fan.  Please don't hold that against her though.  She too has provided me with inspiration and great knowledge and encouragement. I met Avis as well by following her on Twitter. I think the conversation started because of her allegiance to Alabama football.  I quickly discovered her vast educational knowledge as well as great passion to educate young people. She has a great passion for reading which she promotes every chance she gets. She is a great person as well.  She continues to inspire me with her wisdom and friendship.  Read her blog at readingwithdravis.blogspot.com.

• Matt Irwin (@mmirwin3) is my very best friend in the world.  I had the privilege of working with Matt for several years at the same school.  I continue to learn from him as time goes by.  He is one of the most positive and calm people that I have ever met.  He always has an unbiased perspective that helps me see things clearly.  More than being a great educator he is an incredibly generous person.  I admire and respect him greatly as an educator and more importantly as a person.  

• James Anthony (@wdisneywfan) is my brother and fellow educator.  He does have a Twitter account but isn't active on social media.  However, he is a great educator and a very dedicated special education teacher at the Nettleton School District in Arkansas.  He has to vent on occasion, but he is very passionate and meticulous about his work and his job.  Some might say a little OCD.  I need to be a little more meticulous in my daily job as well. 

• Last but not least my daughter Megan Smith Strain (@msmith1461).  She gets two mentions, one as a daughter and one as an educator.  Megan recently graduated from Arkansas Tech University with a degree in social studies and a minor in Biology.  She is looking to find a teaching job somewhere in SW Arkansas if any administrators from that area of the state are reading.  She helped me recover a fire and passion that I had partially lost.  She has two things that I think help all educators succeed: passion and vision!  She has helped me recover my passion and gain a clearer vision of education.  I love her dearly and I am extremely proud of her.
  Inspiration is something we all need from time to time.  We need to be inspired and we need to pay that forward and try to inspire others.  As I finish my first blog, I leave you with three questions: Who inspires you?  What inspires you?  Do you inspire others?