This courageous group of rappers and singers includes classroom teachers and students, a school board member, principals, school leaders, central office employees, and our district superintendent. Within a short amount of time, 76 educators were lined up to spit their designated bars, and our high school chorus teacher and her students signed up to drop the hook. For that, I turned to my fearless colleagues in Hall County, a forward-thinking and creative school district of 39 schools located in Northeast Georgia that serves nearly 30,000 students. Now all I needed was a team of rappers and singers. Two hours later in the media center of East Hall High School, the lyrics to “ Keep Your Head Up,” the educational version, were born. Naturally, when I decided to present “The Thriving Teachers’ Society” as my Capstone, I knew the song had to be completed. The Thriving Teachers’ Society logo, developed by East Hall High School students. Although the program has a lot of room for growth, we do our best to break down barriers by video conferencing via Zoom with other interested high schools and teachers in the district.
KEEP YOUR HEAD UP PROFESSIONAL
During these meetings, dedicated professional educators are inspired to be transparent and share all positive and negative experiences with the collective goal of growing into the best teachers we can be.
KEEP YOUR HEAD UP FULL
The flexible agenda guides participants, who are seated in a circle that symbolizes unity and equality, through the full gamut of teachers’ concerns: teacher morale, school climate, classroom management, educational technology, instructional pedagogy, project-based learning, and personal balance and wellbeing. That program, which is two years old now, is “ The Thriving Teachers’ Society.” Inspired by Robin Williams’ Dead Poets’ Society, the bi-monthly, hourlong meeting seeks to support striving and thriving teachers in all aspects of their profession. The task is relatively simple on the surface: showcase a program that I have initiated at our school and highlight the effects on all stakeholders. The InspirationĪnd then, enter a culminating assignment for a yearlong leadership course I have been privileged to take. I know it sounds cheesy, but I needed to keep my head up and wait for more inspiration. I did my best to stay cognizant of any worthy lines, but I honestly wondered if I would ever finish the song. Newer fragments of Tupac’s original three verses discovered me as I was hammering out long bicycle rides, creating new pieces of family furniture in my woodshop, wetting a line at the local bass pond, or basking in the moonlight late at night while chilling in my front porch swing. In fact, so close that the last three years have found me constantly thinking about this song-even to the extreme of re-writing it with the sole purpose of uplifting students, teachers, and parents everywhere.ĭuring this timeframe, effervescent lines randomly bubbled up and found a way into my conscience.
One such song that has stuck with me all these years is “Keep Ya Head Up.” Being a father to a daughter these last 15 years has kept the song close to my heart. When I was around 20 years old, I was very interested in some of Tupac Shakur’s songs, mainly the more socially conscious and less vulgar raps that articulated positive messages for change.
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