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Peter Noonan, Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Service, Fairfax County Public Schools

COLUMN = EDUCATION

In 2006, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Superintendent Jack D. Dale named Peter Noonan, Cluster VII assistant superintendent and former principal of Centreville High School, as the new assistant superintendent for instructional services, effective August 1.

Prior to that, Noonan has served as assistant superintendent for Cluster VII schools, including the Centreville, Chantilly, and Fairfax High School pyramids. In this position, he initiated instructional and organizational change using professional learning communities, increased accessibility to educational technology resources for students and staff members, and school leadership development to support diverse learners.

Noonan served as principal of Centreville High School from July 2004 until April 2006, where he developed a principal’s round table for aspiring student leaders, initiated a freshman transition team for rising ninth grade students, and secured funding for an Honors and Advanced Placement Summer Institute. Prior to that, he served as principal of Lanier Middle School. Noonan came to FCPS in 2001 to serve as assistant principal at Langley High School.

Prior to joining FCPS, Noonan served as dean of students, assistant principal, and principal of several schools in Albuquerque. He began his career as a special education teacher at Roosevelt Middle School in Albuquerque, where he was named Teacher of the Year in 1993.

Noonan has made numerous professional presentations, including workshops on establishing professional learning communities, providing extra time and support for students, and integrating technology into education.

Noonan earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the University of New Mexico and completed studies to earn the education specialist designation in educational administration from that institution. He was named a Danforth Scholar at the University of New Mexico. He also completed advanced studies of contemporary British and Shakespearean literature at the University of Essex in England.

The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.”

– Voltaire

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”

– Carl Rogers

Anything not worth doing well is not worth doing.”

– Warren Buffett

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

– Charles Dickens

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. 
Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.”

– Mary Jean Irion

Passion makes perfect.”

– Eugene Biro

If you would create something,
 you must be something.”

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

– Noela Evans

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

Entrepreneurs are willing to roll the dice with their money or reputation on the line in support of an idea or enterprise.”

– Victor Kiam

“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.

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.”

– Thomas Carlyle

It is only when the mind is free from the old that it meets everything anew, and in that there is joy.”

– J. Kristnhamurti, The First and Last Freedom

Everyone is a mirror image of yourself—your own thinking coming back at you.”

– Byron Katie

Do one thing every day that scares you.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt

The only dream worth having is to live while you’re alive and die only when you’re dead.”

– Arundhati Roy

‎That which grows fast withers as rapidly; that which grows slowly endures.”

– J.G. Holland, novelist

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

– Henry Miller

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

Letting go of expectations is a ticket to peace. It allows us to ride over every crisis—small or large—like a beach ball on water.”

– Martha Beck

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try going to sleep with a mosquito in your room.”

– A wisdomism

The dove descending breaks the air / With flame of inkandescent terror.”

– T.S. Eliott

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.”

– Abraham Lincoln

To find what you seek in the road of life, leave no stone unturned.”

– Edward Bulwer Lytton

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

– Anita Roddick

The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. The greatest failure is to not try.”

– Debbi Fields, Mrs. Fields Cookies

Running that first shop taught me business is not financial science; it’s about trading.”

– Anita Roddick, founder, The Body Shop

Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.”

– Basil King

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

– Zig Ziglar

If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it.”

– Jesse Jackson

Are you willing to help other people succeed even when it’s not a requirement of your job to be of assistance?”

– Steven Schussler

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

– Nelson Mandela

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

– Jimi Hendrix

Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is most important that you do it.”

– Gandi

Death is to lose the earth you know, for greater knowing; to lose the life you have, for greater life; to leave the friends you loved, for greater loving; to find a land more kind than home, more large than earth.”

– Thomas Wolfe

To follow, without halt, one aim: There’s the secret of success.”

– Anna Pavlova

You may ask me for anything you like except time.”

– Napoleon

The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, ‘What’s in it for me?’”

– Brian Tracy

Women once had the goal of being Superwoman; I think most of us now simply strive to have a super day.”

– Author, Activist Lee Woodruff

Inspiration and genius — one and the same.”

– Victor Hugo

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 best reason to start an organization is to create a product or service to make the world a better place.”

– Guy Kawasaki

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

The person who makes a success of living is the one who see his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication.”

– Cecil B. DeMille

Find somebody to be successful for. Raise their hopes. Think of their needs.”

– Barack Obama

A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.”

– Carlos Castaneda

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

– Albert Einstein