"The Blind Side"

A few days ago I had the opportunity to watch the movie The Blind Side. As my wife and I sat there watching the movie I couldn't help but notice how "into" the movie we were. This was not the first time I heard of the movie, however it was the first time I could watch the movie in its entirety. At my high school we watched a short clip of the film as part of a Character Education lesson during our academic advisory time. Several students in my advisory expressed their love of the movie, and as a result I put it on my list of movies to watch.

As educators we have taken a vow to not only help our students, but also to positively affect the lives of our students. If you have seen the movie then you know what I am talking about; if you have not seen the movie then I encourage you to move it up on your list of movies to watch. If the movie affects you half as much as it affected me, then it will definitely be worth your time...

I wrote a post earlier in the year titled, Why you matter much more than you think, and I believe the post has a ton of relevance to the movie. Every day we have the opportunity and luxury of helping. That is what we do: we help, we encourage, we guide, we support and we protect our students. We do all of these things not because it is our job, in fact, I would argue it has nothing to do with it being our job. We do these things because it is in our nature to help...we do these things because they are the right things to do...we do these things because we are human, and to be human means to help...

As we approach the dawn of a new year, I encourage and challenge all of us to do just a little more than in years past. If every one of us did just a little bit more than in previous years, we will all be doing a whole lot better! Your actions will always speak louder than your words, but most importantly, your positive actions are highly replicable and highly contagious. Enjoy this 3 minute clip and make 2011 a better year for all...