Thursday, October 13, 2016

Who's your booster?

This week was a bit crazy with the start of PTO's Boosterthon.  It got me to thinking about who my biggest booster is.  I could have said my parents or my brother or my sister.  At one time that was probably true.  But now, without a doubt, it's my wife.  Jen continues to put me first in her life, taking vacations that revolve around marathons or our daughter or our family.   It is a very rare occasion when she does something for herself.  She continues to encourage me, almost daily, to write a book about our school and the great things we do here.  Once in a while she'll even drop me an email or print off a suggestion to get my book started.  Because of her I'm sure tat one day I'll start writing that book.  I'm a very lucky guy to have her support and would not be the person I am without her.  So who's your biggest booster?

Cool things that I saw...
  • One of our 7th graders waiting patiently for another 7th grader who he walks to class every day.  He really wants to make sure he does his job.
  • Staff, and kids, excited for the dance off to start out Boosterthon.  Keep the kids energy up for this as it will have a positive impact on your classrooms, as well as a possible opportunity to jump start a theater program.
  • Jordan (AKA Superman) as he made sure we were all safe on Tuesday morning.
  • Flexible staff and students, rolling with the changes as we had a smoke out on Tuesday.  Special thanks to Doug, Dana, and Joy from the Boosterthon to make sure we had something to occupy our 7th and 8th graders until the all clear from the Fire Departments. (We had 3 or 4 here.)
  • Staff being extra flexible on Tuesday morning and doing whatever was needed.
  • 7th and 8th grade staff meeting with families to set the path for success and to celebrate success, too! And I followed it with a 3 mile run with Matt!
  • All of you sharing your goals with one another (taking risks) and even secretly enjoying the theme song from High School Musical.
  • Watching our kids helping out with Before School activities.  They really wanted to get them included.
  • 3 students being recognized for their behavior when others around them weren't behaving so well.
  • While sitting in a classroom with a guest teacher, the students took control of the behavior of students. (I may have had a bit of an impact on their behavior, too.)
  • Homework Club tutors taking charge of the learning of their school mates.
Calendar
Monday, October 17th
  • Jay at the dentist 7AM (crown)
  • BLT at 4:15PM
Tuesday, October 18th
  • SIP team meeting 8:00AM (vision/MAP results)
  • Homework Club at 4:15PM
Wednesday, October 19th
  • A-team at 1:30PM
  • 1st Sphero club at 4:15PM
Thursday, October 20th
  • Fun Run
    • 5/6 at 1:30PM
    • 7/8 at 2:45PM
    • Sliming to follow?
  • Homework Club at 4:15PM
Friday, October 21st
  • Comfy Clothes Day (We'll need it after the Boosterthon!)
Tuesday, November 1st
Tweets, blogs, and quotes
One nice thing (from Thomas Murray)
(from Pinterest)
(from Pinterest)
(I made with Google drawings)

Reminders from Wednesday's presentation
#1.  Please send me photos of things you've gotten due to PTO grants so that I can send them out in emails to parents next week.
#2.  Think about a vision, something short that students, staff, and families can learn, embrace, remember, and recite.

One final thought...
Dana, Doug, and Joy (Our Boosterthon champions) made it a point to stop me on Wednesday after the team huddles.  They've been at this a while and they told me that our students are the nicest and most respectful students they have worked with.  I just thought you should know that.  Even when we have difficult days with our students, it's still much better than it could be in other schools or districts even on their best days.  We are lucky.  Now it's our job to take our kids to the next level, every day.  Think about your lessons and whether there is something you could have done that would have had more of an impact.  Did you spend time connecting with kids individually during TenMarks time or while they were given time to read or write?  Did you stop by a group in Science or Social Studies or PE or Spanish or music or art while they were working together?  I thought about my "lesson" after our meeting on Wednesday.  I should have given you the vision in advance so that you would have had a chance to think about it earlier.  I should have had you get up and move around, change partners, and provided more time to talk about how you have students set goals.  Next time we meet, I promise to be better.  But one thing I can promise for sure, you'll be hearing High School Musical again.

Be the one!
Jay
Take care of the kids.  Take care of each other.  Take care of yourself (John Gunnell)

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