Hometown Pride features a person each week who helps make the community better.
Michael Martin is the assistant principal and was recently named the Assistant Principal of the Year for the southeast region by the Missouri Association of Secondary School Principals (MoASSP).
His wife, Katelyn, works at Nell Holcomb Elementary School. They have a daughter, Stella, and another child on the way.
The administrators, the principal I work with and the staff here are all amazing people. This award is a reflection of everyone that I work with. I’m honored I received this award, but I want to share this with everybody who I feel make me better.
Immediately after that I started substitute teaching, and the first call I got at the elementary level was at West Lane. I can remember the first time I was actually in a classroom and their excitement brought something out of me.
From that point on, I started subbing some more and I went back to school. It took me two-and-a-half years to get my second degree in elementary education, and the position that I was offered was here at the middle school in 2002. I took a sixth grade position here and I haven’t looked back since.
But I’m not about the consequences. I’m about making sure they are going to take what they did, own it and learning from their mistakes. I have to make sure these kids understand why they did what they did, and what they can do to make sure they don’t do this again. Every opportunity is a learning opportunity.
I did not go to Jackson public schools until ninth grade. I went to Immaculate Conception for eight years. I grew up playing basketball, playing baseball, playing flag football — just a typical kid’s life.
In this job, you really see what you take for granted as a kid. I had two parents who loved me. I knew when I got home I was going to be fed. And I knew that if I had homework, my parents would check to make sure I got my work done. I had that, and some kids now don’t have that. I was very blessed.
I worked on a dairy farm from ninth grade through my first two years in college. I worked for the city of Jackson’s parks department for seven years during the summertime. I’ve had a lot of jobs that make me appreciate the job I have now.
Maybe it is a middle school book, since this is the age I’m associated with, and will hopefully be associated with when I retire. I’d love to retire saying I was part of the middle school the whole time.
