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EDUCATIONAL OPTIMIST
C.E. Williams’ new assistant principal says her heart is in middle school
c.e. williams norma smith west of 
C.E. Williams’ new assistant principal Norma Smith, a longtime outdoor adventurer, says she’s ready up for the challenge of life among the tweeners
 
By Warren Cobb
Community Editor
 
This week, C.E. Williams Middle School welcomes the newest member of the Mustang family. Norma Smith was hired as an assistant principal this summer. Smith has been an educator for nearly 10 years. She says the key to getting through to students in the middle grades is trust.
 
“Students have to put their faith and trust in the adults that are giving them this knowledge,” she says. “You have to inspire trust. You’ve got to have a teacher that has the passion to do it.”
 
After graduating from high school, Smith received two Bachelor’s Degrees from Concord College in West Virginia in environmental geosciences and geography. After college, she worked for several years as a professional whitewater rafting guide in the summers and a ski patroller in the winters in West Virginia. She was then hired as an environmental researcher.
 
“I didn’t like it,” she says of lab work. “It wasn’t what I wanted to do and I knew it. My sister, who is also an educator, said check out the critical needs program in South Carolina.”
 
The critical needs program, unique to the state at the time, allowed people with a college degree to work in an accelerated program to get their teaching certification. Smith was certified through the program in Columbia. Then she met a principal at a job fair who hired her to work in Dorchester County as a middle school science teacher. That’s where she realized the middle school age was where she wanted to stay.
 
While teaching at Fort Dorchester High School, Smith got her Master’s degree in Education and Secondary Administration from The Citadel. Within weeks of graduation, she was hired as an assistant principal at West Ashley Middle School mid-2005. Hoping to work under several different principals to maximize her on-the-job training, Smith was transferred to CEWMS.
 
Smith says, despite the challenges the age of students presents, her heart lies in middle school. “If you can handle the raging hormones and the inconsistencies they’re going through in their lives, all the better,” she says. “I believe we need to empower all children, and help them understand they are special and they are smart. Even if you come from a not-so-great environment, you can still be successful.”
 
She says to do that, you have to have dynamic teachers who inspire students. Teachers have to draw kids out of whatever they’re experiencing outside of the classroom and focus on the task at hand. “To me, it’s all about passion,” Smith says.