Drjmoorhouse

LIfeboat As we return to school, I wanted to re share a thought I had posted a few years ago and thought it had application for today. A couple of summers ago, I had the opportunity to take my family on a cruise! We had a fabulous time together and were able to see some really beautiful sights. We ate way too much and took advantage of the chance to unplug and relax. We were on our way home when our ship came to a stop in the ocean. The captain came on the speaker to say that a member of the crew had spotted what they believed to be a life raft, and that they were going to divert course to investigate the situation. As we approached the object in the ocean, it became very clear that it absolutely was a life raft! It was a man made craft floating in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight! I immediately felt convicted. I was reminded of all the times that I thought that I had it rough. I don't truly know what rough is. I then began to think about the people who con...

  Glasses I didn't start wearing glasses until I was in high school. I had such a phobia about eyes; that I struggled to wear contacts. And when I went to college I didn't like how I looked in them and would not wear them all the time. A funny story - in college, when I would come into the cafeteria after basketball practice, my wife tells me that she thought I was a tough guy because I would come in with a scowl. She learned later that I was just squinting to see! I can imagine her disappointment in thinking she had found this brooding, tough guy, to later discover that I was just too prideful to wear my glasses. However, after 28 years, I guess she was not all disappointed, or maybe just persistent - probably a little of both. Lately, I have been paying a lot more attention to my glasses. My new glasses have been causing me troubles. I spend a large portion of my time meeting with people, which nowadays, requires me to wear my mask most all of the time. Initially, I had to ta...

Point of Reference Just recently I was having a conversation with one of our school board members, Eric Hyche. He and his wife had just gone on vacation to Utah and visited Arches National Park. He was sharing with me some of his pictures from the trip. There was one set of pictures that I found fascinating. The pictures really had an impact on me. So much so, I wanted to share them with you. So with his permission, I am going to take you on a little trip to Utah and share some insights that were inspired by this amazing place! The Arches in the park are majestic! One example, the Delicate Arch, shown below, is 46 ft high! You can see Eric and his wife Angie at the base of the arch. Pretty spectacular, isn’t it?  The next photograph depicts the Double Arch. This geographic feature stands a whopping 104 feet high!   And the last arch that I want to share with you is another wonder in natural formations. How tall would you imagine this third arch below to be? 50...

True or Truth? One of my favorite authors is Andy Andrews. You have heard me reference the first book of his that I read called The Traveler's Gift. A friend recommended it to me several years ago and ever since then I have been hooked! In Andrews’ most recent book, The Bottom of the Pool, he introduces a concept that I want to elaborate on, because I think it applies to where we are today. His writing highlights an understanding of the important distinction between what is true and truth! To make his point, he uses tomatoes as an example. The tomato plant is a member of the deadly nightshade family, and the household fruit was originally considered poisonous for over two hundred years. Andrews explains that Northern Europeans and American colonists held fast to the belief that the tomato plant was highly toxic. Who could argue the fact. No one, as the early settlers had seen dogs and cattle die after eating the tomato plant. That the tomato plant is highly toxic rem...

The Space Between I am writing from my dining room table after being cooped up, which is a feeling I am sure many can relate. In my semi-solitary state, I was reminded of a trip I took several years ago to Germany and Poland with the Tennessee Holocaust Commission.  On the trip, we traced the steps of the the first Jews affected by the Holocaust. We saw the site of the first deportations and we visited several concentration camps. It was at one of the camps that I snapped the following photos. Let me describe for you what you are seeing through these images. You are seeing a space between two fences. Behind one fence was where all the female prisoners were contained and behind the other fence was where all the male prisoners were contained. Both fences were electrified.  Then, there is the space in between. It was the story of this space that caused me to take the picture and of what I was reminded of today. As we stood at this location, our gu...

G.R.I.T. I originally had a different message planned to share with you this month, but I have recently been reminded of an experience and feel convicted to share it with you now. Hooray for everyone, as you will receive two messages this month! LOL. Several years ago, while I was a high school principal, I became aware of a researcher named Angela Duckworth. Her work focused on the cadets of West Point Academy in an attempt to determine the best predictor of their future success. Long story short, she developed an instrument called the GRIT scale. Cadets that scored higher on the scale were more apt to go on to accomplish great things at the Academy. She presented this research on a TED Talk and even wrote a book defining GRIT, in part, as the ability to overcome obstacles and delay gratification. As a high school principal, I found this research to be immediately valuable, and I used Duckworth’s model to develop a GRIT program for my high school students. I turned the term ...

Stop lights or Roundabouts One of the things that I love about Kingsport City Schools is the opportunity we have for professional learning. I want to share with you a learning that I recently experienced that was a real paradigm shift for me and caused me to reflect. So much so, that I am going to try and share it with you and hopefully it will have the same impact on you. So stick with me as we go through this exercise! Question: How might we prevent cars from hitting each other in an intersection, while maintaining the maximum flow of traffic? Both of the scenarios pictured above are viable solutions. So, how are they different? The stop light solution is based on a set of assumptions. #1 People need to be told what to do. #2 Problems need to be managed with rules and complex technology. #3 One must have a plan for every possible scenario. The roundabout solution is also based on several assumptions. #1 People can be trusted and will use their judgement to do the rig...