J. Tanner Curry

If we are going to honor mothers in education this , then we must be willing to ask harder questions about the cultures we lead.

Do the mothers in our schools feel seen as whole people?

Do they feel supported when life changes?

Do they feel safe enough to name exhaustion without being judged as less committed?

Do they feel permission to care for their own families without guilt?

Do our systems honor the humanity of the people we ask to serve children every day?

Because leadership is not merely about producing outcomes. Leadership is stewardship.

Sacrifice without support eventually becomes depletion. And depletion is not the same as devotion.

This Mother’s Day weekend, we are reflecting on the quiet sacrifices mothers make-the ones many of us did not fully understand until we became adults, spouses, parents, or leaders ourselves.

Especially the mothers in education: The ones who teach other people’s children all day, then go home exhausted and still try to be fully present for their own. The ones who work until the final days of pregnancy to preserve leave. The ones who serve as teacher, nurse, counselor, caregiver, advocate, and safe place.

As leaders, we cannot just admire sacrifice. We have to support the people making it.

Join us on the milk crate this week: https://bit.ly/4uF3Lg5

Honor the sacrifice. Lighten the load. It matters more than you know.

Our Instructional Leadership Team at Furman Middle School recently engaged in intensive cluster training with our National Institute for Excellence in Teaching success coach, the great Ms. Laura Tew, with a focus on facilitating high quality teacher clusters.

Using NIET aligned practices, we strengthened how we lead collaboration, professional development, and data driven conversations to ensure every session is impactful. Teachers leave with clear tools, strategies, and actions that directly support instruction-no time wasted.

This work continues to build strong instructional systems and support consistent development toward stronger Level 3 and Level 4 teaching across our school.

Our Instructional Leadership Team spent several powerful days learning alongside our coach as part of our partnership with National Institute for Excellence in Teaching. Together, we strengthened our data systems, refined support structures for teachers through clusters, conducted group walkthroughs to strengthen inter-rater reliability, and mapped out long-range plans designed to accelerate our momentum.

We’re proud of the progress we’re making and even more excited about what’s ahead. When leaders learn, students win - and we’re committed to continuing the climb!

I had the pleasure of spending some time today with our piano students in Mr. Nash’s new piano class. I heard many joyful sounds and truly found inspiration in their passion for music. I am incredibly proud of our growing arts programs at Furman and the positive impact they have on our students. This is

A HUGE shoutout to our science teaching team, incredible long-term substitutes (who volunteered their time), administrators, and instructional coaches for joining today's virtual meeting with our amazing partner, Cognia! ❄️

Even though it's a snow day and school is closed, their dedication to student success is absolutely NOT frozen!

During the meeting, we reviewed our first interim assessment, piloted this year with Cognia, which provided invaluable insights into student progress and achievement in mastering the South Carolina Science Standards.

This commitment to excellence is what makes Furman Middle School stand out. Whether it’s sunny or snowy, our team is always focused on helping our students thrive!

For a few hours this morning, our dedicated Furman Middle School instructional coaches and admin team came together to facilitate an engaging and productive teacher work session focused on instructional planning for next week. The focus was on instructional planning that aligns with the best practices outlined in the SCTS 4.0 rubric and integrating reset mini lessons during the first week back at school to set the tone for the semester ahead and ensuring that students are prepared and motivated to learn.

Moreover, we discussed strategies and planned for maintaining a classroom environment that fosters high-quality teaching and learning. Our goal is to create spaces where students feel safe, engaged, and excited about their educational journey.

A huge thank you to our instructional coaches and admin team for their leadership and support in empowering our teachers. Together, we are laying the foundation for a successful school year!

Proud to work alongside these incredible Furman Middle School Tribe Leaders! Over the break, this dedicated team came together to collaborate, plan, and push forward on our journey toward excellence.

Their passion and commitment ensure we’re ready to make the 2nd semester of #2025 even more enriching and impactful for our students because "It's Game Time"!

Proud of our current and former Furman Middle School Indians who represented Lakewood High School wrestling today in the “Fall Brawl” at Sumter High.

Despite the upcoming holiday break, our Furman Middle School Indians remained focused on quality teaching and learning this week until the last bell rang. They celebrated back-to-back wins for our e-sports team, basketball practice highlighted great potential for the coming season, arts programs continued preparing for the holidays season, and students explored new concepts like foreign languages and abstract self-portraits. One student even shared that he noticed a need for quicker access to school supplies then conducted market research and presented a business proposal for a school-supply store to school administrators. By dismissal at 3:35 today, every member of our community had truly earned this well-deserved break.