: About Me

Physically, I'm about 5'11-6'0 tall, and as the joke goes, it depends on which convenience store I'm leaving. For most of my adult life, I weighed between 160-165; then I married a good woman who can cook, and I'm pushing 200 now. My loves in life (aside from my wife Elizabeth) are teaching, coaching runners, and educating myself. I am halfway through the coursework of a doctoral program in Educational Policy, Planning, and Leadership at the College of William and Mary, and I teach at Centura College in Newport News, VA. With all of my side projects, I have recently launched McGrath Educational Services, a company dedicated to the practices of teaching and writing. I love sports, and am a total homer for the D.C. teams (GO REDSKINS!) What else? I am licensed to teach secondary school English in Virginia, and I've been licensed as a REALTOR in this state for 15 years. I put the R.E. license on referral status for now to concentrate on grad school

Anyhow, I'm 45, and my joy in life is working hard so that I can enjoy time at home with Elizabeth and our dog Jake. Jake is a black lab that we adopted shortly after Christmas. He's energetic and keeps both of us up all night with his bathroom breaks. But that's OK because he has brought much happiness to us.

(P.S.) On a sad note, we lost Jake, as well as most of our belongings, in a house fire on June 26th, 2009. I have posted an article on this event. Since his passing, we have adopted another dog, Hudson. Huddy is a golden lab/boxer/(pit bull?) mix and he is as quirky as his brother.

I do love to write and have found Helium and my blog site (jfmcgrath.blogspot.com) to be tremendous outlets. Away from this wonderful site, I have been stringing and contributing local town square articles for the Daily Press, after writing about 75 articles for WYdaily.com/Tideradio.com (92.3 FM, Williamsburg), and several articles for milesplit.com. I have posted a couple here, but it is difficult to stray from the subject when most of them deal with running or track in Virginia.

My passion is ...

laughter

I know too much about ...

non-sensical sports and music trivia

My parents always told me ...

to keep all options open

My childhood ambition ...

to be a sportscaster

My favorite memory ...

meeting Hank Aaron

Why I write ...

I love it

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

don't know where to start

My first job ...

delivering State Farm cards for John O'Connor in Alexandria, VA

My best moment ...

making the national finals in the USA/TFA track meet for the 12-13 year old 800 meter dash (1979)

My inspiration ...

My wife Elizabeth

Business > Leadership Strategies Tips for efficient leadership

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    As a building leader, the responsibilities of closing the achievement gap fall on several levels. The core traits involved with being a successful school leader are an ability to serve as a model teacher, a continuing awareness of cultural competency and the ability to analyze data, develop effective teaching strategies designed to improve learning deficiencies, and communicate the findings to the teaching staff.     First, as an administrator, one is expected to be an educational leader. As such, the school leader needs to be a capable teacher in the...

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• Teacher
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