Week Two of the Principal Road Tour!

I just did a calculation - which is a stretch for a reading teacher - and figured out that I have been in a car for a total of 45 hours in the past two weeks. I've been west to the mountains, northeast to the outer banks, and southeast to the barrier islands. I've also traveled all around the middle of the state - to six different counties (one of them twice, thanks to snow.)

I started the week at my school working with our Hispanic families at our Community Literacy Center. This particular Sunday was really fun because the weather was beautiful so we took our lesson outside. I would point to various things and ask, "How do you say this?" or "Como se dice?" We discovered how to say words like "grass," "tree," and "road" in both languages and had stimulating conversations on how to say "mud" and "grate" in Spanish. Inside the building we got really lucky. Gravelly Hill Middle School's amazing art teacher, Victoria Buckner, had displayed papier mache animals all around the school's media center, and we were able to practice our Spanish-to-English versions of animal names. I learned so much! Now I know why there is a band named Los Lobos (the wolves) and why there's an Amarillo, Texas (amarillo means yellow.) Again, we had interesting conversations on what an otter is in Spanish...and a ground hog...and a weasel. We all looked pretty silly sticking out our teeth and acting like we were burrowing in the ground.

That afternoon, I met with the other members of the Principal of the Year Selection Committee, and off we went to Elizabeth City, N.C. "E-City" is on the northeast tip of our state and is a beautiful paradise surrounded by water. We met committee member Alisa McLean's parents at Captain Bob's - I ate shrimp and oysters from the North Carolina coast as we prepared for our day at Northeastern High School on Monday.

Northeastern High School - Elizabeth City, N.C.

Monday afternoon we set out on our longest trip yet. We were headed to Brunswick County so we were leaving one of the northeastern counties and driving to the southeastern-most point in the state. Keep in mind that this particular geographical area includes various rivers, swamps, inlets, and sounds so we were over water quite a bit. Water is really pretty, but bridges aren't my best friends. Somehow I kept my little Prius on the road, and five hours later we arrived on Oak Island.

South Brunswick High School - Southport, N.C.

After our visit to South Brunswick High School, we returned to the Piedmont area of the state, Alamance County, for another elementary school visit - we were at Eastlawn for the day. There I had two reunions. Shaneeka Moore, the Assistant Principal at the school, is a former student of mine (am I really that old?) To think that one of my seventh graders could potentially be my boss was a little too much to handle! I also was able to reconnect with Cathy Foust, Alamance County's Teacher of the Year for 2008. As the neighboring county's Teacher of the Year, Cathy and I were together at several events in 2008.

Eastlawn Elementary -Burlington, N.C. - the Eaglets!

Finally, we headed back to the same Charlotte hotel where we were snowbound last week. And we visited Sharon Elementary School which was not under snow at all. In fact, it was a beautiful day, and we soon drove back home after two weeks of being on the road. We all were happy to return to our families and our jobs, but we will miss the fun and fellowship that was the Principal of the Year Tour 2009!

More eagles! Sharon Elementary School - Charlotte, N.C.

Some highlights of our statewide tour:

-elementary children saying ANYTHING (i.e. "He's a good principal because he's healthy.")

-food! (school pizza, doughnuts, brownies, cake...)

-checking in and out of hotels over and over and over and over...

-watching major sporting events in hotels (the Super Bowl and the Duke/UNC basketball game)

-meeting Alisa's parents

-seeing entire school staffs dressed in school spirit attire to greet us

-seeing high school boys in three piece suits

-having ROTC greeters

-dealing with several mishaps - like getting trapped by luggage on a stairway and getting caught in a torrential rainstorm

-and most importantly...the thousands of school children, teachers, and amazing principals we met!

Thank you, North Carolina. It was an experience of a lifetime!