Category: Uncategorized

Blog has been a little quiet lately. I have been busy handling some changes…

Tonight I was honored to be named Principal of the lowest performing comprehensive high school in Osceola County… on paper. But, my students and staff are anything but. I have 1700 students that, when the bar is raised, will rise to meet and exceed. My staff works long hours educating students on ever changing standards, meanwhile filling in gaps of years worth of knowledge. Lots of people think that they can teach – and the truth is they can’t. It’s not an easy gig. The work we have ahead of us is hard and long – but when complete our students, staff, and school will be all the better for it. 

On May 1, my school held one of our most important days of the school year. It was Signing Day.

Many people may say, Signing Day? Did they choose the Gators, Seminoles… who are they playing for? But, I have to stop them. Our Signing Day is not about athletics, but rather academics. May 1st every year is College Decision Day, and we celebrate our Seniors that have been accepted to college or have post-secondary plans.

We are in our second year of this tradition and we doubled the number of acceptances from last year. The process is simple. We invite all of our accepted students to our Signing Day ceremony. There they meet with their peers and we acknowledge each post-secondary institution and those accepted. Students sign a certificate that states their commitment to the importance of post-secondary education.

Each signing we cheer, celebrate, cry, and lift each other up. It has become one of the most important events to me personally. I hope that you can take this idea and bring it to your school. In the meantime, check out my College and Career Counselor, the @theeducounselor on Twitter.

Mike Meechin, M.Ed.
@mikemeechin

For more information about having Mike speak at your school or district, click the “Book Mike” link under Work With Me.

Shift. It happens.

What can I say? It’s been a while since I have found time to sit down in front of my keyboard and put my thoughts onto the screen for you to read. It is good to be back.

Since I last wrote I have had a major shift in my professional career – being promoted to Assistant Principal with a large, urban high school in the Atlanta, Georgia area. It has been a major shift for me… and it happens. Just as I shift, this blog will shift as it has before. I am excited to bring new content and my reflections to this blog as I journey down this new path.

I am excited to write more and also to continue to contribute over at the Coop Catalyst – where you can find the work of many great ed reformers.

I thank you for your readership and interest in the Transparent Curriculum.

Mike Meechin, M.Ed.
mike.meechin[at]gmail[dot]com
@innovateed

I do not know Dan Meyer. However, I would like to thank him.

The inspiration for this blog and the “transparent curriculum” which I am about to share with the world, came from him. To be honest I have been waiting for a little bit of inspiration for a while now. I have been trying to figure out what I was supposed to “do” next. This is it.

I used to write another blog (some of which I will post here), and for a while I was happy with it. But, recently for a long while I just did not feel inspired to write. I am inspired again. I will not promise to write often, but I will try to write a few times a month consistently. If I write more, then great – my hope is that you will enjoy and also participate in the conversation.

It feels really good to share this work – and I hope you will share it too, and possibly one day share your work. Public education in this country is in need of great educators stepping up to the plate and sharing. It’s ironic that a behavior we were taught in pre-school could be so powerful to our profession.

To Dan Meyer – thank you.

More to come.

Mike Meechin, M.Ed.
mike.meechin[at]gmail[dot]com
@innovateed