Passing the Torch

In June, I ended my role as president of the AMLE Board of Trustees. I began my journey as a middle school educator in the late 1970s. I taught middle school children in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina and taught people how to be middle school teachers in those states. I served as president of Professors of Middle Level Education and have continued to serve on the North Carolina Professors of Middle Level Education Board. My journey includes sharing what I do at Middle School, Math and Technology conferences. I have seen a shift in the opportunities that are available for educators. When I began, giving presentations and writing books and articles were the most prevalent means of communication. I have watched a flood of new sources of exchange and inspiration.

On our journeys as teachers we have the opportunity to carry our torches...the torch of care, the torch of trust, the torch of creative and critical thinking, the torch of inquiry, of communication, and collaboration, the torch of celebration. And so regardless of our role as teacher, administrator, counselor, support staff, district, state, parent or business partner, Board of Trustees or Committee members, or national leader, we carry a torch of commitment that what we do for children in our schools is important.

I believe that our joy, our passion, and our commitment must be shared. Our world needs us, needs the positive support of our story. We have the opportunity to make a difference in our school settings. I would encourage all of us to find ways to pass our torches figuratively and literally.

It was a tremendous honor to serve. It is a tremendous honor to hand the torch to our new Chair of the Board of Trustees. I will continue to carry my torch and to share the joy and passion of working with young adolescents. Here's to continuing to share our advice, our courage, our story.

Amle.org is The Association for Middle Level Education and I am committed to continuing to support those who work with young adolescents! They, the students, are magical and need educators who are willing to work with them as they, in the word of Sara Powell, 'become.'