Change is tough, evolution is tough. We crave comfort and symmetry, knowing that things will be as we want them to be, as our parents said they would be. Education is a great example. The pandemic has made us question how to reset the playing field. Do grades matter? [...]
There's never an easy way to pay tribute to someone who passes way before their time. Ethan Cohen wrote this yesterday, much more powerful than I could ever write: Sophomore year of high school, Mr. Midgley was my football coach. I was a 15 year old drunk idiot who thought [...]
Koyaansiqatsi From December 2, 2016 “Donald Trump is a flaming shit bag. No, not because of the reasons you’re thinking (I can hear my editor now, “Sure, Walt, good luck trying to write your way out of calling the president a flaming shit bag.”) but because he is a [...]
Not a big fan of end of the year writing. I tried to do a Christmas letter once and did more offending than impressing. Thought about an end of the year wrap up but why? Especially this year which will be remembered as the “Year we are most [...]
Overall, about a C, maybe C-. Thursday my pathological optimism was gone and the students knew it. “You doing OK Mr. Williams” This message was in the Chatbot during Advisory, typed from a student I had really not connected with during the semester. In 25 years of [...]
Leaders Needed National, State, County, bosses, parents, we need all forms of leadership and we need it now. How we lead matters especially during times of crisis when we need competence and vision the most. We need it now, after months of flailing around, things are beyond dire and [...]
Happy Thanksgiving party people! Sure, you can spend 20 minutes reading this but then please log out and tune in to whatever corona tainted holiday experience you have created. The unknowns are killing us. OK, maybe that’s a little dramatic but 8 months of not knowing is [...]
Dear 70 million Americans, Sorry for your loss, I know losing is tough especially when we all need a win to get us out of this Coronafunk but when I started writing this last week, I was feeling the need for unity, trying to reach out to get the [...]
Did you feel it? For me it was Wednesday afternoon after I had just put away the VOTE sign driving it from the diRosa to Creekside, scanning for the 5-0 and wondering if travelling down Highway 37 at 60 mph with four 10-foot wooden letters strapped to the top of [...]
Why wreck shop? The third bombing was the worst. As if this job isn’t tough enough, I had some outsider use our school counselor’s name to join my Thursday Geometry Zoom class. The counselor coming into class is not an unusual thing as she enters and puts in the [...]
Walt Williams is in it for the money, that and the prestige that goes with 22 years of teaching in California high schools (he’s not the smartest tool in the shed). He firmly believes in more standardized testing and that fitting all students into the same box is really the answer. He strongly supports fracking and that climate change is a fantasy made up by hippie liberals, also that the military needs more funding and that schools should just stop whining.
Walt brings a lifetime of experience and energy to this new endeavor. He was the principal of the Arts and Ethics Academy in Santa Rosa for two years, and has spent the last 15 years engaging students in finding their paths at Creekside High School. He is the father of two and the husband of one and lives in Sonoma, California.
Walt is a skier; fly fisherman, wine tour bus driver, tennis player, and sometimes writer. He likes to dress up in front of lots of people and display large works of art around the community. His mantra is to work hard, create and love. Complex life, simple message.
