Brief Summer Update

I hope that everyone is getting a good start to the summer. It took a while for the warm weather to arrive. As I write this, it is probably the hottest day of the year. It is supposed to be in the low 90s today. If you have not had a chance to drive by the school, it is really looking different. The office area was being torn down about the day after school let out. One day I drove by and saw a Bobcat in the office tearing things down on the inside. The new gym area is coming along well. The tall walls are starting to go up. It looks big! The lights for the football field were installed shortly after school got out. They have started on the concessions area and bathrooms at the sports complex. There are crews all over. It is exciting to see. The elementary work is coming along well, too. Starting in the fall we will have a very different feel with all of the physical changes to the buildings.

Click here to see a few pictures from June 23, 2009.

Michigan Merit Curriculum Interview

The link below is to a radio interview that was done by WCFX in the spring of 2009 regarding the Michigan Merit Curriculum. The interview included the superintendent from Mt. Pleasant, the superintendent from Beal City, and me. We left a link to interview on the high school web page for several months, but we are moving it to the blog to make room for some other items.

Click here to hear the interview.

Have A Great Summer!

It has been a great year! I hope everyone has an enjoyable summer. My family is doing a lot of traveling, but I hope to use much of the summer to prepare for a good start to next year. The summer will go by quickly! It will be exciting for people to back to school after having been away for the summer because the construction is moving along so fast. I hope they continue to make good progress. I want to be able to start next fall in the new office!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to the SHS baseball team that won its first state championship this past weekend. The team had a remarkable season. The boys were so focused all year. It is great to see all of that hard work pay off. We are so proud of their accomplishment!

Family Memories

I know that I have talked about Google Docs a lot at work. We are using the applications more and more to collaborate and share documents. Well, today I started a Family Memories document and shared it with my immediate family. I intend to make this a living document that we continue to add to as we create memories. You never know what is meaningful to others until they start to share their memories. For example, when I knew that I was going to propose to Kristi, I was afraid that she would say no. I didn't tell anyone what I was going to do. We went to a play at Christmas time and before the play (Phantom of the Opera) we were talking about church and singing in church. To make a long story as short as possible, Kristi made the comment, "We would have to be married before I would let you hear me sing." Little did she know that I already had the ring and planned to ask her to marry me sometime, somehow after the play. I had no idea what I was doing or how to go about the whole thing. I took the ring out of my bag. Just as I turned around to try and figure a way to actually propose, Kristi turned and walked toward me. The thing that came to mind was to open up the engagement ring box and say, "I want to hear you sing." Well, she didn't say, "no". There have been many memories since then - some good, some not as good. But, the rules of the memories document is that they need to be positive or sentimental memories. It will be interesting to look at this over time and see what is memorable to each of us!

Have you ever noticed the difference between people who have a difficult time with change and those who seem to relish it? I guess it all depends on the type of change. None of us like change that is the result of something tragic. But, there are many things that change our lives or things that we initiate that change our life. I think there are some of us who have adult ADD, while others are a little OCD. I don't want you to tell on anyone, but I would be more in the OCD camp while Kristi would be in the ADD category - generally speaking. I don't like changes when it comes to my routine and what I have become used to, but I do always look to make changes that I believe will help improve things. I am always looking at things that I need to do to make my house better or improve my job performance or improve the school, etc. But, I don't like change for change sake. I don't like to break what has become tradition. There is something in my core that gets troubled by changing traditions. Some people can just "roll with the changes", but others of us feel very uncomfortable inside. We are sure facing some changes for some of our high school staff. As you all know, enrollment in the high school is down, and we have to reduce teaching sections. Either you or one of your colleagues will be facing changes for the coming year. Some will adjust to the changes more easily than others.

MACUL

I am here at the MACUL Conference (3/18-20/09). This post is to provide those who attended or are have interest the presentation, "Apps For Administrators: Tools to Support SIP...and More" that Kristi and I are did on 3/19/09. You will be able to go to my Google Site and click the presentation attachment of the slide show if you click the link below. Much of the presentation was demonstration of the applications mentions from web tools so what you will see is what was discussed, but the actual demonstration will not be in the slide presentation. Please feel free to contact me through the comment feature of this blog.
Click here to see the presentation.

For those who were in the session, please use the link below to complete a survey about the session. It will require a password that will be provided to you at the session.
Click Here to take survey