Episode Details

Happy Friday!

Thank you for your hard work and dedication to supporting our students and each other this week. We have made significant strides, and it is inspiring to see your commitment reflected in everything from classroom engagement to our district’s performance targets. Your efforts contribute directly to our mission of ensuring that our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident. Each week brings us closer to our goals, and today I want to reflect on the importance of using the tools at our disposal to achieve excellence together.

Tools to be Perfect

When I was a teenager, I worked several jobs, each involving tractors and farm equipment. One summer, I found myself working on my uncle’s farm, where he and his brothers grew row crops—corn, wheat, and milo, to name a few. One afternoon, my uncle tasked me with planting milo on a 50-acre plot. He handed me the keys to a tractor equipped with a seed drill and explained how to put the seeds into neat rows across the field. I listened and felt confident, ready to show my family what I could accomplish.

As I climbed up onto the tractor, I noticed a metal bar attached to the far end of the drill. It had a small disc that would make a mark in the soil—a guide to keep my rows straight. It was called a row marker. But, as a teenager with a bit of overconfidence and lots of experience with farm equipment, I decided to skip this step. "I do not need that,” I thought. "I can eyeball it just fine."

So I went back and forth across that field, the smell of diesel exhaust and tilled earth filling the air, as I focused on getting the job done quickly. At the moment, I felt certain I had done well, keeping my rows reasonably straight. But then, a week later, the milo sprouted, and the reality of my shortcut became painfully clear. The rows were not straight at all. They were crooked and overlapping, a clear sign to everyone that I had not used the tool meant to guide me. What could have been neat, even rows of green shoots turned into a messy, tangled embarrassment.

Looking back, I realize how easy it would have been to follow that guiding line—a simple tool meant to ensure the job was done well. But I did not see its value until it was too late. That small bar with the disc was there for a reason, a tool to help me succeed, yet I had not used it.

Our Teaching & Learning Tools

Reflecting on that experience, I am reminded of how often we find ourselves surrounded by tools and resources that could guide us if only we chose to use them. Just like that guiding bar on the seed drill, many of the tools we provide at Mena Public Schools are here to support you, to help ensure your work has the impact and precision you aim for. Yet sometimes, in the day-to-day rush, it is easy to overlook them, feel we do not need them, or think that there is not enough time to learn them. Of course, we will never achieve perfection in anything we do, and it is unrealistic to think we will. However, it is essential to keep striving for it, knowing that each step toward that ideal, that vision, helps us grow and achieve our best.

One tool I would like to spotlight this week is the ATLAS classroom tool. This tool is designed specifically for creating Common Formative Assessments (CFA) in subject areas with more than one teacher and for designing assessments based on standards, written at various depths of knowledge. Utilizing the ATLAS classroom tool not only aids in consistent assessment creation but also allows students to grow more familiar with the same system and structure they will encounter in state assessments.

Why Use the ATLAS Classroom Tool?

Studies have shown that familiarity with test format and structure can improve student performance. Research in educational a