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| Photo courtesy of the Dodge Magnet Middle School web site.
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You know how you clean the house before company comes to visit? Especially when that company hasn't been to your home before or they are someone who is special in your eyes. That's what has been happening for the last month at our school. We found out that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx were coming to our school on September 11 and the housecleaning began! Anything that could be polished, washed, waxed, trimmed, raked, and made beautiful was tackled. Our campus sparkled thanks to all the hard work of so many.
These visitors, of course, were not alone. They brought an entourage of Secret Service, staff, and the accompanying press corps that follows any big event in a community. We had local police, district security, and all our district dignitaries. The students knew we were having a special visit but they had no idea how special and wild this visit would be! This kind of activity, in their minds, was usually reserved for rock stars, multi-million dollar athletes, and movie stars.
The secretaries arrived on one of the school buses with some of our students. One of my sixth graders was thrilled that she sat with Secretary Duncan and shared about her science project that she was delivering to class that morning. I loved seeing that big smile of hers when she told me! The press did their thing once the bus unloaded - then the real fun began. The kids picked up on the high energy and couldn't help but notice all the suits and ties. We're a school with a tougher dress code than most of our schools so the lesson was not lost on them.
Mr. Duncan and Mr. Foxx were interviewed by one of our eighth grade Social Studies classes, played basketball on the playground with some of the PE kids, painted Kindness Coins with our Builders' Club service organization in the cafeteria, and stopped into two of the sixth grade classrooms for a closer look at how hard our students and teachers are working to implement the new Common Core standards. I have to say that as much as I wanted to just have a "normal" teaching day, I was thrilled and honored that the Secretary (and the press...) popped into my class while I was teaching the lesson on patterns. He dove right into the activity with the kids and asked about it. Right on cue, Josh told him we were looking at patterns and how to predict the number of tiles in another step. Yeah, Josh!
Photo courtesy of Fernanda Echavarri, AZPM
As teachers, we all know how hard we work on a daily basis - often without words of encouragement or appreciation. When the Secretary of Education pats you on the shoulder and tells you to keep up the good work, it makes you feel like you can do most anything for the rest of the school year. Before he left, Secretary Duncan told our principal that he thought our school was "amazing." Those of us who work there know how fortunate we are to work with the best kids, parents, and staff we know. We are very proud of our "A" rating by the state and strive to be excellent each and every day.
I'm not a cynic by nature, but even I questioned the value of this experience and the purpose of the Secretary's bus tour. I could get all political here and talk about political aspirations, tax dollars, man hours, etc. but I won't. What I want to remember is that for a few hours, our school shone like a diamond in the eyes of the public. Our kids were in the spotlight for being so amazing. For just a little while, everyone else got to see what we see every day. Thanks to everyone who noticed there are great things happening at Dodge!
For more photos and information from the visit:
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