We have a new assistant principal! Did you know that? Her name is Mrs.Cook! She is such a wonderful, amazing, nice, and warm-hearted adult. Mrs.Cook is so spectacular that she gave an opportunity for us to go and visit her office to get to know about her. We interviewed her with a lot of common questions to just get to know her and her experience. We loved talking with Mrs.Cook, it made us feel great that day.
One of us asked Mrs.Cook if she liked being in this school. She said she didn’t like being here, she LOVED being here. She explained that she could already tell that we have a great staff and a really hardworking and dedicated students. That made both of us feel really great about ourselves.
Next, we asked a question that we really wanted to know about. We asked Mrs.Cook what us, students, needed to work on. She told us that the students need to make Grover become a place of kindness which is really true. She is hoping to see more students making Grover the home of the kindness. She also replied that who you are is important. We, students, in Grover should work on that to fulfill Mrs.Cook’s wish.
After that, we asked her if she has been a teacher before. Surely, she worked at a lot of different places and she had experience in a lot of work fields. This is her 21st year as an educator. That’s cool! She has been a 7th grade special ed teacher for six years. A 1st grade teacher for three years. A reading specialist and basic skills teacher, instructional coach for four years. A basic skills teacher or an instructional coach helps teachers become better teachers. Mrs.Cook was really detailed in her response and we really liked that because then we could get to know more about her.
Another question that we asked was what she did other than being the assistant principal. Surprisingly, she did many other jobs in the school other than the wonderful assistant principal. We were delighted to hear her answer. This is what she told us, she gets to work with teachers and students. She is an assistant principal in charge of 8th grade and two of the 6th grade teams, which are 6T and 6G. She runs the Green Team committee. She also runs the Professional Development committee, Campaign Connect, and many other committees. That is a lot for one person to handle.
We moved on with our questions and asked her when her first day at Grover was. Both of us expected the first day of school, but her first day was July 1st! She was just as confused as the new kids were with such a big school. We were surprised to hear that news from her. We thought that she was going to say that she got hang of the school pretty fast, but she didn’t.
Another question that we asked if she was in her office most of the time. What we heard was not that surprising because she is always in the hallways talking to students and smiling with that amazing smile that she has. She told us that she was only in her office when she was meeting with teachers and students if they wanted to talk with her. Mrs.Cook answered our questions without any hesitation which made us realize that she wasn’t lying. That is great for us!
One of our last questions that we asked was what she wants to see more of. She hasn’t seen any bullying which is a very good thing. That is great to hear because we had the bullycide video and that impacted a lot of us. So far we really liked our visit there.
Our second to last question that we planned for her was what her daily life was like. Her daily life was like watching things that students are a part of and students having a good time. She liked seeing the teachers are very dedicated to students. They are always willing to help. She also meets with teachers to know what they are teaching, for the Green Team, and Stakeholders team.
Sadly, our last question was if she got stressed out a lot which is probably common for an assistant principal who takes care of a lot of things. She tries not to get stressed out a lot, but her job is sometimes very busy. She get home around 5:30. She has three young kids and she lives in Freehold.
Our visit to Mrs.Cook’s office was very fabulous. We heard a lot of new things that we didn’t hear from other teachers. We got to know more about the new assistant principal. She made us feel good, we got our information and now we can talk to Mrs.Cook with no fear.
Grover Middle School's Jagazine 