Nathan Smith

Join us in celebrating National Principals Month and recognizing the incredible leaders who make a difference on our campuses every day. Today, we recognize Fuller Elementary Principal Nathan Smith.

@leachfortexas The insane part is you’ve scared LEA’s of being sued so much that they can’t take care of students … you get what you create.

Insanity. #txlege

Storms coming in Lewisville looking south toward Dallas. @wfaaweather

Need help designing a progressive SUCCESS CRITERIA for your learners & their task? Try this FREE AI tool HERE 👇 chatgpt.com/g/g-aCTXvbK8O-… It will also ask if you'd like tools & pathway suggestions for learners to move upward in their learning. More on letsquitteaching.com

🚨 science investigations in 5th grade @FullerElemAISD 🚨

Enjoying some @RidersBaseball with our Fuller Family. @aubreyisd

Fine tuning our grading practices with teacher teams @FullerElemAISD ♥️💙✅📋

Our @aubreyisd student athletes are helping our @FullerElemAISD teachers get settled into their rooms with new materials! ♥️💙

The classroom is ready for year 17 and this principal is ready for all the @FullerElemAISD teachers to be back in the building! @aubreyisd

Tonight's the night!! Our Fuller Family Vacation (culture night)! It's almost boarding time! See you soon!!

It’s #WorldDownSyndromeDay and while I’m not there to celebrate with my “extra” girls, I wore my sweatshirt to support them! Love them both! @aubreyisd #lotsofsocks #DownSyndromeAdvocate #AssumeICan #schoolprincipal

@wfaaweather Little Elm/Colony area just over the lake

BASEBALL size hail is CONFIRMED in this storm in Denton County. Here's the track. #wfaaweather

A special reading of Dasher by the one and only Mr. @NJSmithEDU @aubreyisd @FullerElemAISD

I got to read “Don’t Let the Pigeon Ride the Bus” by @The_Pigeon today to our RISE classroom! It’s their favorite! @aubreyisd #aubreyproud

Channeling @taylorswift13 for Halloween this year! #22 #youbelongwithme #lookwhatyoumademedo

Character Parade Day was a huge success! @aubreyisd

I met Albert before the school year started. I was moving into my office & saw him shooting hoops by himself. He approached me and asked if I was the new assistant principal. I introduced myself and shook his hand. He then asked if I’d play HORSE. I thought about the long list of things I had to get done and how far behind I was, but quickly decided that HORSE with a student trumped everything on that list. While playing basketball, he asked me several questions and literally spoke for 20 minutes straight without taking a breath. He was funny, interesting, and seemed very intelligent. When we finished playing, he thanked me for spending the time with him and he walked home. I went back in the building and started to tackle the many items that were on my long to do list. A few weeks later we had some back to school IEP meetings. One was for a student named Albert. I pulled the file so I would be prepared for the meeting. To my surprise, this was the same Albert that I played basketball with a few weeks prior. He had a list of a dozen school suspensions, at least six DSM diagnosis & was assigned to the self-contained classroom for 85% of the day. Something didn’t add up. The parents didn’t show for the meeting but gave permission to conduct the meeting in their absence. This was the first IEP I had ever attended where there was not one positive word spoken about this student. Even when they asked for any strengths, nobody could share any. I spoke up and said that based on my 20 minute encounter with him I felt he had several strengths: a good outside jump shot, excellent communication skills, an inquisitive nature, and a big smile. I looked around the table and everyone stared at me like I was either crazy or talking about another student. The school year started with a bang. Albert became upset in class and ran down the hall and straight out of the building towards his home. I managed to catch-up to him before he crossed a major street and I convinced him to walk back to the school and into my office. Albert was crying and obviously frustrated. He said that everyone in the school was mean to him and that they all thought he was a bad kid. In my head, I thought that he was exactly right—certainly based on the IEP meeting participants. We had a nice talk and Albert seemed to calm down. I asked if he would like to join me outside for a game of HORSE. He gave me a strange look, but then said, “Are you sure?” I told him definitely and he enthusiastically agreed to play. Once we were outside, Albert asked if he was going to be suspended. I told him that we would forget about this one, but that if there was a next one, he would be sent home. We discussed some better choices for next time, as running out of the room and building was a real safety issue. I stressed that I wanted him to be safe, because I liked him, cared about him, and did not want anything to happen to the school’s best basketball player. He smiled at me and asked if it would be okay if he could come to my office when he got upset, instead of running out of the building. I told him that was a great idea. We played basketball for a bit and decided that it was time to go back inside to prepare for lunch. Albert turned his head, looked me in the eyes and said that this was the nicest thing that anyone at school had ever done for him. Albert kept to his word. There were several other times that he got upset and frustrated, but instead of running out of the building, he ran to my office, sat in a corner & cooled off. Each time it would take a few minutes before he was ready to talk and process what happened. Albert never got suspended that year and staff regularly shared some positives about him. Amazing what one small act of kindness can do to help a student be successful. From the book: “Whatever It Takes!: For All Students to Succeed in School and Life” (a.co/d/3sOcuFW) Join us at the “Maslow Before Bloom” Facebook group: Facebook.com/groups/maslowb….

Collaborative, intentional partner work today building Playdoh houses with friends we haven’t worked with before. This was an extension to our discussion on what makes good friends! *the blue house: “a donut house with syrup and sprinkles” @FullerElemAISD @aubreyisd

Let me tell you something about teachers.. this is my school at 9am on a Saturday. They just worked their tails off for 3 days w/ kids & 7 days in PD. They aren’t getting $ to be here today. They do it bc they love kids.. our kids. They know our kids deserve it! @FullerElemAISD

I visited Fuller ES on our first day of school. Everything was running well. Thank you Mr. Smith and staff for all the hard work to have a successful beginning! #Aubreyproud #Inspiringhope @FullerElemAISD