McMillan urges intentionality for students and staff

Last Wednesday, Principal Andrew McMillan released a video explaining an idea that will include every single student in our school: the Hopes and Dreams Project.

McMillian describes the project as a way to help students reach specific goals that they set for themselves. 

“We talk about leaving school and being prepared, but what does that look like?” he said. “What does that sound like?”

McMillan believes that once students put their hopes and dreams down on paper and really envision themselves accomplishing them, great things can and will happen. 

“We know that we’re going to send kids out, but what are we helping them to do while they’re here?” McMillan asks. 

The end goal of this project is to have every student write down their hopes and dreams and to have them all in one place, so that when scheduling classes and helping students find colleges, teachers and administrators are better suited to plan for students’ specific goals. 

This project also falls under McMillan’s goal this year: to be intentional. 

McMillan has challenged everyone in the building to be intentional in all they do.

“We try to get our kids in the right place to be successful, but it’s not just some willy-nilly approach,” he said. “There are little things that we do. We just don’t celebrate them enough, and we certainly don’t brand it in the way that we need to.”

This approach extends to teachers as well. Before the first day of school, each teacher painted a canvas with things that would remind them to be intentional every day in class, and many can be seen hanging outside of teachers’ classrooms. 

“Some of our teachers, even though they may already be teachers, may have other hopes and dreams,” McMillan said. 

Each student should be completing their project in their second-block classes over the next few weeks.