Annual Spring Graduation Walk at elementary feeder schools. This gives elementary students a glimpse at their ultimate goal in public education, and it also provides high school seniors one last trip down memory lane. A great moment for elementary students, high school seniors, and former teachers.
Last bus ride. Smiling seniors are bussed to former elementary schools for a final graduation walk down hallways from nearly a decade in the past. We use four yellow buses so that every senior gets that one last bus ride. Always smiles at the beginning, and tears at the end, it is a great tradition to start for any high school.
Students--with the help of a teacher--always seem ready to strike when you least expect it.....
Conference Champions! At the end of my tenure at South Iredell High School, we celebrated conference regular season and tournament championships. I spent 13 years as a high school coach.
Last day at Newton-Conover High School--it was a great six years!
Honoring our Top Ten! Another yearly treat is our Top Ten Banquet, honoring those who stand out in academics and are beginning their quest for success in the future.
Celebrating success during the Covid Lockdown. We hit the roads with three activity buses, and teachers, coaches, administrators, and support staff traveled to every single senior's house to plant a graduation sign in their front yards. In a year without an official graduation, this was a special treat for students and parents. We even enlisted the county sheriff's department to lead the way, with lights and sirens blaring at each senior's home. A great memory for all during a time we'd rather forget.
Most ironically, a year before the Covid lockdown, another assistant principal and I shared a light-hearted discussion before a Friday night football game. Little did we know that in a matter of months, masks would become a necessity.
2019 NCHSAA State 2A Baseball champions! It was a great run to Greensboro, and I was proud and honored to be acting principal during this time.
Back in the trenches after 11 years in administration, I returned to the classroom as an English teacher at Statesville High School. A great recharging experience that confirmed I can still practice what I preach" as and administrator. My 10 grade students at this high needs school passed their state EOC exam at a 90% rate, greatly exceeding EVAAS data prediction of 25% . This move rekindled my love of education, and the following year, I was moved back into administration at West Iredell High School to help turn turn around academic performance and teacher/student/parent apathy.
Collector of almost anything Star Wars related, antiques, comic books, and vintage toys.
The Covid Comics
March 2020 holds many vivid memories of masks, social distancing, sicknesses, deaths, and feelings of gloom and hopelessness. It was during this time when education was moved online that I returned to my roots to help relieve stress and give hope to those who needed it. As such, I brought my old comic strip, GOONS, back out for this purpose. It kept me going and provided some happy sunlight into an otherwise darkened new world we were now navigating. Four over four weeks and through Easter, I was happy to share this happiness with others. Here is a sampling of those "Covid Comics."
