New Albany High School's New Learning Environments

My most recent blog post is another contribution to Mr. Carter's Office.  This post is about New Albany High School's new learning environments.  The post can be viewed here.  The purpose of this post is to inform parents and community members how New Albany High School is attempting to meet the needs of all learners.

Social Media Apps

My latest blog post was contributed to Mr. Carter's Office Blog and can be viewed by clicking here.

My goal was to share current and upcoming social media apps with parents and encourage them to have the appropriate conversations with their middle/high school student.  After it was posted, I received positive feedback from many parents.  Interestingly, one parent of two elementary children commented that she has experienced many these apps being explored with her 5th grade son.  It is never too early to open the dialogue with your student.

The FRED Factor

I just read the inspiring and uplifting book, The Fred Factor, by Mark Sanborn.  I highly recommend it.  You can read it in about 2 hours - very quick read and lots of little nuggets to take away. 

I would like to share a "Fred" in my life.  In January of 2002, I started my first day of student teaching at Gahanna-Lincoln High School.  I graduated high school in a class of 120 and went to a small university with an on-campus population of just a few thousand.  So I was just a bit intimidated walking into a high school of over 2,300 students.

Because I arrived during bus drop off, I was forced to park in the back lot - which meant I entered the building somewhere in the back.  As I entered the building, I was reminded of the crowd from a recent concert I attended.  It was not chaotic, just crowded and busy.

I saw an adult and asked him how to get to the front office. He started to explain, "go down this hallway, turn right, go past the cafeteria, turn, left after the restrooms, go through the lobby..." He must have seen the gazed look in my eyes because he stopped in the middle of his explanation and said, "you know what, just follow me. I will take you there." 

The Fred Factor is all about finding those small opportunities to make a big difference in the life of someone else. 

Thank you Chuck Banks (@TheRealMrBanks) for being exceptional and extraordinary by walking me to the front office and engaging me in a comfortable conversation on that day. 

Find your opportunity to be a "Fred" to someone else today!

YOU Matter

In honor of New Albany High School's 2014-15 theme "YOU Matter" I would like to share one of my most humbling moments in which I realized a very valuable lesson related to our theme.


About two months after being named head coach of the boys soccer team (at Gahanna), my two captains were struggling with nagging injuries that could lead to something more serious if not taken care of.  I promptly scheduled a meeting for them to meet with the athletic trainer.  I had never met her so when we came into the room, I introduced myself  and the players to her.  I wanted to make sure that she understood how valuable these two players were to the team so during the introductions, I made the comment that these are my two captains, were really good players, and we needed them for the start of the season.  She immediately quipped back to me, "Well they are all important coach."


It felt like she hit me with a ton of bricks.  I had not intended to be disrespectful toward my other players, but I was.  I am grateful that she had enough courage to be honest with me.

So just a friendly reminder: EVERYONE in your organization matters.  We need to treat every person as if they are the most important person.  Not just the person who can give you a raise.  Not just the person who can get you a discount.  Not just the person with the office/room right beside you.  Not just the person who you get along with the easiest.

At NAHS this year, we hope that this theme will resonate throughout.  YOU matter.

The Man in the Arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. 

- Theodore Roosevelt

Excerpt from the speech "Citizenship In A Republic"delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910