Every other week the leadership council of DMS (teachers, counselors, media, & administration) meet to forge a path as our school moves ahead. This year we started something new. At the start of each meeting we all share what we are grateful for at DMS. Each member of the leadership council has gathered gratitude thoughts from their sphere of influence (grade level, etc.) and added their own to these gratitude reflections. It is amazing how productive our leadership meetings have been as a result of this little addition to the agenda.
At our leadership council meeting this month, I will be sharing how grateful I am for our PTO and the wonderful event they created and hosted in October. October was national anti-bullying month and we at DMS closed this month, which has been full of awareness activities, with a 5k costume run and 1mile walk against bullying. I was so grateful for the many parents and teachers who showed up and made the premier of this event such a success. This event will now become a tradition! Traditions are challenging to start but even more difficult to break once they are started. Traditions build culture as they unify people and establish substance in an organization. To those teachers and parents who could not attend, I am sorry that you missed out on an incredible event that has brought us together as a community. To those who showed up but did not participate or those who were seen but did not allow themselves to be "all in", I would challenge you to do more next year. This type of traditions are intentional building blocks as they help our school grow forward! Our efforts for a paradigm shift at DMS have taken a hard right turn, as it is no longer socially accepted for parents to vent their frustrations on social media. Instead frustrated parents are now expected to "show up" and constructively share their concerns in a progressive way that promotes growth. No longer will teachers just be able to get by with a simple inspirational story about being "all in", now they will be asked to live those stories here at DMS. We will be asking more from our parents and teachers because we will be expecting more from our students. It is not fair to raise the bar for students without the adults who care for them willingly making the effort to come along side in support of these students entrusted to us.
Saturday October 31, 2015 is the date that showed us how it feels physically and emotionally to "grow forward". And though there will be many more experiences like this in the future for DMS, it will be fun to look back and say I remember when it all began!
THANK YOU PTO!