August 30, 2006

 

On behalf of the Pennsylvania Middle School Association’s Executive Board, I welcome you back to another exciting year in middle level education, where the students are unique and the staff committed to excellence.  When you walk the halls and interact with adolescents do you become excited, motivated and crazy?  Yes, adolescents put us through all kinds of emotions and they take withdrawals from our emotional bank account.  You have one of greatest jobs in the world and one of the most challenging.  That is why it is important that you make deposits into your emotional bank account.  You must deposit those things that make you happy, fulfill your needs and enable you to have fun.  If you don’t, your students will make withdrawals that will bankrupt your emotional bank account.   Middle Level Educators know this, and it is evident that their emotional bank account is at the upper limits.  But what is more valuable than having one’s bank account filled to the max, is your ability to add to another’s emotional bank account.  Ask yourself, how you make deposits into your students’ emotional bank accounts, the accounts of your colleagues and those of parents.  I have found that Middle Level Educators are true benefactors when it comes to making those important emotional deposits into someone else’s personal account.  Yes, the emotional well-being of a student is related to their ability to learn.  Research proves this.  So as you plot your course for this school year and establish the benchmarks of your students’ success, make those daily deposits into their emotional accounts.  The dividends are priceless.

 

Special Notes:

In early spring, the National Middle School Association released, “Success in the Middle:  a Policymaker’s Guide to Achieving Quality Middle Level Education.”  Special thanks go out to NMSA’s Executive Director, Sue Swaim, for her commitment, passion and vision for middle level education nationwide.  One hundred thirty of these booklets have been distributed to policymakers from across the state.  Make certain that your district has received a copy to review.  For more information e-mail,

lference@mbgsd.org.

 

 

Please mark your calendars for the PMSA Annual State Conference to be held on March 4-5-6, 2007 at the Hilton in Downtown Harrisburg.