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Ann Monday, Superintendent, City of Fairfax Schools

COLUMN = EDUCATION

Educational leader and City of Fairfax resident Ann Monday became superintendent of the City of Fairfax Schools on July 1, 2007. She retired on June 30 as the assistant superintendent of instructional services for Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), a district she has worked in since 1973 when she became a teacher at Kilmer Intermediate School in Vienna.

She then served as chairperson of the English department at Chantilly High School from 1976-1980, when she became an administrative aide at Marshall High and subsequently a sub-school principal at Lake Braddock High School.

In 1984 she was appointed the assistant principal at Fairfax High until 1987, when she became associate principal at Robinson Secondary School. After a stint as the principal at Longfellow Middle School from 1990-1992, she became the principal at Robinson, where she was responsible for managing more than 4,000
students and 300 staff members.

In 2003, Monday was tapped to become Cluster VI superintendent, and was responsible for 24 elementary and secondary schools.

The following year, she took on a division-wide leadership position as the FCPS assistant superintendent of instruction, responsible for all instructional programs from pre-K through adult education.

FOR MORE INFORMATION visit the City of Fairfax Schools website, www.cityoffairfaxschools.org. Or contact Superintendent Ann Monday by email, amonday@fairfaxva.gov.

‎No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another.”

– Charles Dickens

I was taught at a very young age that you can do whatever you want to, but you have to make it happen — not just talk about it.”

– Kathleen Jo Ryan

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.”

– Albert Einstein

The music is all around us. All you have to do is listen.”

– August Rush

Entrepreneurs need to search purposefully for the sources of innovation that indicate opportunities for success.”

– Peter F. Drucker

Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.”

– Groucho Marx

Anything not worth doing well is not worth doing.”

– Warren Buffett

The goal of Life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with nature.”

– Joseph Cambell

He who knows he has enough is rich.”

– Tao Te Ching

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

– Charles R. Swindoll

I’m not afraid of storms,
for I’m learning to sail my ship.”

– Louisa May Alcott

Who cares if my glass is half empty or half full; I still have something to drink.”

– Optimism rules

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it”

– Andrew Carnegie

Ripeness is all.”

– William Shakespeare

We never know how high we are
 till we are called to rise;
 And then, if we are true to plan,
 Our statures touch the skies.”

– Emily Dickinson

The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.”

– Henry Miller

If you were independently wealthy and never had to work a day in your life, would you still choose to spend your time attempting to become a successful entrepreneur?”

– Steven Schussler

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.”

– Steve Jobs, Apple, Inc.

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

– John Quincy Adams

How do you stay resilient? It’s about momentum. Like riding a bicycle. If you stop you fall over. So I keep pedaling.”

– Diane Lane

Always look at what you have left. Never look at what you have lost.”

– Robert H. Schuller

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

– Albert Einstein

The gem cannot be polished without friction; nor man perfected without trials.”

– Chinese proverb

But all the while I was alone, the past was close behind, I seen a lot of women, but she never escaped my mind, and I just grew, tangled up in blue.”

– Bob Dylan

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

– Thomas Edison

The good ideas are all hammered out in agony by individuals, not spewed out by groups.”

– Charles Brower, Advertising Hall of Fame

If people like you they’ll listen to you; if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.”

– Zig Ziglar

The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.”

– Nolan Bushnell, founder, Chuck E. Cheese's

Instead of loving your enemies, treat your friends a little better.”

– Edgar W. Howe

No longer talk at all about the kind of man a good man ought to be, but be such.”

– Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is compromise.”

– Robert Fritz

Do you believe it is important to give back some portion of your wealth to support charitable causes?”

– Steven Schussler

Remove those ‘I want you to like me’ stickers from your forehead
and, instead, place them where they truly will do the most good—on your mirror.”

– Susan Jeffers

Passion makes perfect.”

– Eugene Biro

Success is about finding a livelihood that brings joy, self-sufficiency, and a sense of contributing.”

– Anita Roddick

Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes.”

– Benjamin Disraeli

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.”

– Winston Churchill

We are not meant to resolve all contradictions, but to live with them and rise above them.”

– William Blake

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.

– Robert Frost

Inspiration and genius — one and the same.”

– Victor Hugo

Remember that it’s okay to ask for help when you’re stumped, because sometimes you really can’t be expected to handle everything alone.”

– Martha Beck

You only live once. But if you do it right, once is enough.”

– Mae West

Do not say, ‘why were the former days better than these,’ for it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”

– Ecclesiastes, 7:10

Many people prefer to play it safe when it comes to business matters. Are you willing to take risks in the pursuit of entrepreneurial success?”

– Steven Schussler

If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.”

– Thomas Edison

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.”

– Leo Jozef Suenens

A man without a smiling face
 should not open a shop.”

– Chinese Proverb

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”

– Jimi Hendrix

Challenge is a dragon with a gift in its mouth. Tame the dragon and the gift is yours.”

– Noela Evans

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.”

– President Calvin Coolidge