Celebrating National Principals Month: Andrew Hall of Cherokee HS!

October is National Principals Month! Our Principals are amazing instructional leaders dedicated to ensuring our students learn more, grow more, and achieve more in our classrooms than they could anywhere else!  We’re recognizing these inspiring leaders with special posts throughout the month. Please join us in thanking them for all they do to support our mission of being the highest performing school district in Georgia. 

Cherokee High School Principal Andy Hall

Why did you want to become a teacher?
Teaching found me more than I really sought it.  I was lucky to have a mom who was a fantastic elementary teacher and a number of great teachers in school, so I was attuned to how much it means to have a great teacher.  Still, I thought I’d do other things and didn’t originally study teaching in school.  But when I ended up enjoying the pursuit of my English minor more than my advertising major from UGA, I dove in to teaching high school English and never looked back. 

Who was the most influential teacher in your life?
Peggy Corbett was my English teacher in 10th and 12th grade at Sequoyah High School.  She taught me how to read books and how to write, but the best lesson she gave me was in always maintaining high expectations for myself.  I wrote a paper in 12th grade, admittedly not my best work, but I of course expected a good grade and a pat on the head for being “smart” in English class and for being a senior.  I don’t recall the grade I got, but I’ll never forget the comment on the paper.  Ms. Corbett wrote, “This one doesn’t make my socks roll up and down.  You can do better.”  She knew it, and she made sure I knew it, and I’ve carried this lesson personally but also applied it in my teaching and leadership career. 

What’s a favorite memory from your first year as a teacher?
I was teaching ninth-grade English at Cherokee High School.  Thirty-plus kids in the classroom, and I’m delivering a lesson and some directions for an upcoming task.  I’ve finally got them paying attention and quiet, and a huge droning housefly starts looping around my lectern and all anybody can hear is the buzzing.  I kept talking to the students, ignoring, dead set on delivering the information and staying on my lesson plan, but when the fly got close, I saw my opportunity and reached out to snatch him with my hand.  One quick motion and I found myself holding up a closed fist to the class, and the buzzing had stopped.  Total silence, then the question we all had came from the back: “Did you get him?”  Short pause, and I opened my hand and the fly came buzzing out again and flew out the door into the hallway.  I never did really get that class back on track that day, but those freshmen talked about the fly for the rest of the year. 

How did teaching prepare you to be a Principal?
As a high school teacher, you have to build and maintain 100-plus relationships each year with your students and your families.  Working to do this and learning how to do it better and better each year that you teach is the perfect training for much of what you do as a Principal.  I don’t get to use my English content knowledge as much now that I’m a Principal, but the relational parts of teaching that I learned find their way into just about everything I do as a Principal. 

#CCSDElevateTheExcellence #ThankAPrincipal