#family – Thoughts from the SUPERintendent

My SAMS Family

Winter break is close, just one day away actually. This is always a bittersweet time for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love a few days off, just like everyone else. I sincerely love spending tons of time with my family and extended family. Remember, I’m 100% Italian, spending time with your family is what we were made for! My mother will have enough food to feed a small Minnesota town, my brothers will tease me, each other, all their nieces and nephews, and anyone who shows up at the door. I will be in my happy place for sure.

My Italian Family: F1F2B759-0231-4048-9A15-19259D8EDE4F

But there is something special about my SAMS family. The adults at SAMS make a choice every day to come to SAMS to live out a vision for all our kids. A vision that drives us to see each kid as our own. I get to do this with adults who dedicate their lives to the lives of the children at SAMS. Adults who, even when things are hard, do the right thing, adults who work way to hard and for way too many hours – to make sure ever kid feels not only loved, but has the best opportunity to learn. This family, my SAMS family, is just like my big Italian family. We know collectively, we can make this world a better place, because we get to do it together. And furthermore, we do it with humor, humility, and hardwork.

My SAMS Family:

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Thank you St. Anthony Middle School Staff – thank you for giving of yourself to make this school a place for all kids to feel loved and to excel academically. I also want to thank you for not only contributing to my most favorite present (to those who don’t know, I was given a hover board see below), but for knowing how much I would love having a hover board at school!

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SO – in honor of the hard working staff at St. Anthony Middle School, the Corneille Family will be donating $250 dollars to our SAMS Community Fund. This fund was set up last year, to make sure, no matter what, our kids have access opportunities.

Have a great break everyone.

My New Year’s Wish

Hi all. It’s Amy K, from Renee’s office at SAMS. It’s also me in that picture baking with my daughter on my back. When my husband showed me this picture he took of my youngest and I baking over winter break, it reminded me of parenting advice my minister offered when I was pregnant with our middle child. She told me the only parenting advice I’d ever need was to “be the person you want your kids to grow up to be”. Simple enough, yet what a challenge. I couldn’t help but see this picture as a metaphor and wonder how differently or similarly would I behave if Callie was always on my back, looking over my shoulder, hearing every word I said.

This wasn’t just good parenting advice, it was also good teacher advice.

Be the learner you want your students to be.

Be the musician you want your students to be.

Be the champion for justice as you want your students to be.

As the new year gets under way, my wish for the grown-ups in our SAMS community is to have the courage, commitment, and awareness to be the people we want our kids to grow up to be. We’ll need to rely on each other, as well as our senses of humor, to pull this off. Our kids will continue to do things like wait until the night before a project is due to get started on it. Some of them might cry hard over a B+ even though you’ve never expected all As. They are going to say things they do not mean and try on attitudes that are anything but appealing. But they are also going to create beautiful artwork in art class, make connections between their current world and the past in Social Studies, and solve complicated algebra problems in math class. In fact, they are going to shine in all sorts of classrooms. And while they are stretching their minds with all this learning, we must stretch ourselves to be vigilant in our learning too. May 2017 be our best yet. Our kids deserve it.

Before I sign off, let me share why I’m here on Renee’s blog today. She and I are both committed to updating this blog more consistently. While sometimes Renee and I joke about sharing a brain, you can tell from this post, we do not share writing styles. But we’ll both be here more often trying to share pieces of our world here at SAMS. We invite you to share questions and prompts to help us follow through on this goal. Go ahead- we’d love to see some comments, thoughts, and questions.

Cheers,

Amy Kujawski

Who you are and what you know…

During my teacher preparation program, a professor told the class, “as a teacher, you can only teach who you are and what you know” – for some reason that small statement stuck with me. Maybe due to my need to understand the context of things (I was a history teacher), or maybe, the statement started me thinking about how crucial it is to be authentic.

For the past two weeks I have attended two funerals. One for an amazing 102 year old woman named Mary Fuller. Grandma Mary was my husband Mike’s grandma and my children’s “Grandma the Great”. Her ability to live her life to the fullest for her entire 102 years is not only an inspiration, but also… just super fun. And fun, is what Grandma Mary was, she was always quick to laugh and always quick to say yes to an outing or adventure.

This past weekend I attended the funeral of my Great Aunt Angela (aka Auntie A). For the past four years my aunt has been rather sick and not totally with-it, but her passing marked an end to a generation of people. The first generation Iafigliola family who in 1911 emigrated to Cleveland, Ohio from Gildone, Italy. The picture posted above is of Angelo Nicola and Maria Teresa, my great grandparents, who gave birth to eight children, the last being my Auntie A.

Being from the United States, many of us have stories of immigration. Stories of grandparents who for many reasons, moved from their native home to the promise of America. The story of the Iafigliolas is not much different, but one thing to note is the Iafigliolas did not measure the American Dream in units of money, housing, or work, but rather, in family.

My Aunt Phil (Philomena Marie, born 1915) would tell us “I am a millionaire…my family, my sisters, my brothers, are worth more than jewels”. If you knew Aunt Phil, you would know she did not say this with sweetness, but rather with strong conviction, it was her truth.

So, what is the value of family? What is the value in knowing who you are and knowing who came before you? For me, it means everything.

For to know me, is to know my Uncle Mike, Patrick, John and Joe and to know my Aunt Phil, Theresa and Angela, and to know my Grandma Jean. Because it is due to them – I understand what love is and what family means.

We often talk at SAMS about the concept that there is “no such thing as other people’s children,” and, now that I think about it, I learned that concept from my family. When I learned about Auntie A’s death, Amy K asked me if Auntie A had any kids. I replied, “No, she did not. But she put a few through college.” Yep, it’s definitely something that’s been passed down; there’s no such thing as other people’s children.

I’m not sure why I needed to write this blog, but maybe it is because it goes back to what my professor stated, “you can only teach who you are and what you know” – I am Iafigliola and I know how to love.

I also think I needed to write this blog because, I don’t think knowing who you are and what you know is reserved just for teachers. It is crucial for all of us, in all aspects of our life…right?