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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (May 31, 2019)
MAY 31, 2019, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A3 Invisalign & Traditional Braces Customized Financing FOR A FREE CONSULT CALL 503.362.0500 www.haveagreatsmile.com Truly Amazing Smiles orthodontics for children, adolescents & adults SCHOOLHOUSE SQUARE 5099 RIVER ROAD N, KEIZER What it takes to be a school principal BY LAUREN MURPHY Of No Adults Allowed Sixteen years ago, when Julia DeWitt started working in the education system, she had no idea it would lead her to being principal of Whiteaker Middle School. “When I started out I wanted to be a math teacher,” Ms. DeWitt said. Her fi rst full time permanent teaching job out of college was teaching sixth grade language arts and social studies at Claggett Creek Middle School, “I just loved teaching language arts and social studies, I just really enjoyed that.” Though she intended to switch to the math department when a job opened up, she decided to stay, “I loved it so much, I never looked back.” Before she was the principal of Whiteaker, she was a teacher, a teacher leader, an instructional coach and an assistant principal at various schools in the district, “I just kept getting all these hats they’d have me wear,” she said. “I never thought I would be a principal, it was never on my radar,” Ms. Dewitt said, “I was enjoying what I was doing, felt like I was making a diff erence, I get to work with people.” Ms. DeWitt cares greatly for her students and the people she interacts with on a daily basis, “The best parts are just the people: the students, the staff , the community, just working with people.” “I have less daily contact with students but a greater infl uence,” she said, “As a teacher you have a greater impact on classes of students, as an administrator you have an impact on a whole school and community.” The driving force behind her decision-making are the students, “I feel like my experience as a teacher, and a teacher leader, and an instructional coach really helps me stay in tune with making sure the decisions I’m making are best for kids.” “I work for kids,” Ms. DeWitt said. “Every day on my drive to work, I think about my students and about how to make this a great day, a great week, that they’re always on my mind about how to move and grow.” She had this mentality when she was a teacher, too. At the end of the year in her social studies classes, she found a way to make her students look forward to the end of the unit instead of dreading a test, ““Instead of a test, we had our Greek Olympics.” Students in the class would compete in diff erent events, “At the end of it because the kids were so invested everybody got a medal.” She also had her sixth grade language arts students write a letter to the incoming middle schoolers.“They were just wonderful letters,” she said, “It was authentic.” The letters would contain advice, tips, encouraging words, and of course a little humor. On the fi rst day of school, she would hand the letters to her incoming • Uranus is tilted on its side students, “It was a great fi rst day for kids.” “Those are things I miss, those making memories, being together, being a family,” she said, but overall, she feels that moving to administration was the right decision, “I’ve had all this experiences that could really benefi t being in the position of a principal.” She has found a few ways to transfer her creativity from teaching into her current position, “Middle school is about teaching the whole child,” “In addition to academic, we talk about social/emotional learning.” “I love my job,” she said, “They know that when they leave here, they’re leaving here with a group of adults that really care about them, beyond a test score.” Book off ers guide to fairy tales, life • Many public libraries carry video games and movies in an attempt to get younger people to get a library card. • National Football League referees also get rings for being in the Super Bowl. • During World War II the Eagles and Steelers combined in 1943 to form the “Steagles.” • Contagious yawning is when someone yawns because they watched someone else yawn. • Most dinosaurs were closer to the size of a human rather than being massive creatures. • Dinosaurs are divided into groups based on their hip bone structure. • A type of fungus in the tropics takes over ants’ central nervous systems and turn them into zombies. What is a killer whale’s favorite type of music? KEIZERTIMES/File Photo Julia DeWitt, Whiteaker Middle School Principal • The letter “q” is the only letter that does not appear in the name of any of the United States. BY ERIC A. HOWALD Of No Adults Allowed As you grow up, you might begin to realize that adults don’t always know everything. Adults like me try to know as much as we can but, even when we’re sure of something, new information can come along and change the way we think. That’s a long way of saying we don’t get an instruction manual when we’re born, and many things would be easier if we had a book to turn to. Writers try to come up with life manuals all the time, but the closest thing I’ve ever found is a poem by author Neil Gaiman titled Instructions. It just so happens that his poem was later turned into a picture book with the same title and illustrated by artist Charles Vess. Instructions doesn’t sound like a typical poem that you learn about in school with a lot of rhyming words – not all poems need to rhyme, some of the best don’t rhyme at all – but Gaiman uses short sentences to talk to the reader as though they’ve entered a fairy tale and gives them advice on making it back home safely while making sure there are several adventures before they do. There are notes on what to do when encountering three princesses, whether you should trust wolves and how to slay a dragon, but there’s also instructions that apply to any journey. One of my favorite sections is, “If any creature tells you that it hungers, feed it. If it tells you that it is dirty, clean it. If it cries to you that it hurts, if you can, ease its pain.” That’s the type of instruction we all need to be reminded of whether we are still in school or as old as dirt. All of the writer’s beautiful words come to life alongside beautiful ink-and-watercolor illustrations by Vess, who is pretty much the perfect match for any fairy tale ever. As much as there is to learn from Instructions, the best thing about the book is that it reminds us there are adventures waiting for us as long as we don’t forget how to look for them. This book is only one of many waiting for you. Orca-stra