Nose to the Grindstone

When I taught at Creston Middle School in Indianapolis,  my principal used to say repeatedly over the announcements, "Keep your nose to the grindstone".  As teachers this meant stay focused and keep our students engaged and busy learning the standards that we had posted in our rooms everyday.  We were frequently reminded that we were responsible for student learning and that every minute counted.  We used to talk a lot about bell to bell teaching.  Yesterday I must have forgotten this important message that Mrs. Patterson-Marcotte used to preach so many years ago.   Distracted by the technology available to us, spring break, being a fanatic of Butler basketball are all just excuses for not keeping our noses to the grindstone.  As your leader, I apologize that I did not protect the instructional time here at Lincoln.  90 percent of the bandwidth yesterday during the high point was generated from Team LJH.  Please know that together we must keep our noses to the grindstone and make every minute count for our students. Lesson Learned.  Have a great break starting 2:35.