The Rockford School District's 'Principal for a Day' event allowed me to fulfill a dream. And to pay respect to teachers and administrators who do this daily.

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TSM[/caption]Being a school principal for only a day was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. But I had some big requests if I was going to do it. This is the kind of thing that, for me, might only happen once in my lifetime and I had some dreams to fulfill. If you listen to my show, you know my love and respect for educators runs deep. I didn't just want to walk around the building 'dropping by' classrooms and saying hello to teachers and students, I wanted to get involved in the entire process... and I did just that. Eisenhower principal Jeff Carlson obliged ALL of my requests and to him I owe the biggest of thank you's.

My day started with doing the morning announcements (the students weren't too happy with me when I said I was kidding about having the next two days off).

Then it was off to past 97ZOK Teacher of the Week Mr. Hoel's theater class to watch the students work on their performances. Afterwards we all talked about being authentic and using their past experiences to make a more emotional connection with the audience. Then we played a game where the students froze in a position on the floor and it was my job to try and get them to break character. I tried everything from making them smell my shoes and socks and telling one student I had a 3rd nipple. One young man was so good, you won't believe what I had to do to get him to crack (see video below)

Then came lunch supervision. I thrive on chaos and noise and this was the perfect opportunity to have some more fun with these wonderful kids.

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TSM[/caption]In Mrs. Brown's English class we had a conversation about how important it is, like good journalists & storytellers, to use the immense power of words to make the reader/listener feel something. I shared my favorite quote from Maya Angelou. (see video below)

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

In special ed teacher Ms. Huftalin's class, another 97ZOK Teacher of the Week by the way,  we danced to the Cha Cha Slide and shared a lot of hugs. An incredible moment I'll remember the rest of my life.

There was one more request I had for principal Carlson, please let me bust in on Mrs. Heddinger's band class and play drums with them. They were working on 2 new pieces of music and I'd never heard either one of them before. I can't thank those students enough for letting me 'attempt' to fit in.

Here's a short video that shows just how fun my day was playing principal.

I am forever grateful for being given the opportunity to be involved with young people on this level. Thank you to the Rockford School District for having an event like this to give us an opportunity to not only see what it takes to run a great school, but to be a contributor to its success.

The day this happened I posted a picture in front of the building. Later that day, when the kids were getting home, they started telling their parents about the day they'd had at school. These comments touched my heart and one was absolutely hilarious.

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