Affirmations

So after more than a years' hiatus, I've had my arm twisted into dusting off this blog (Hi Brenna!). Tonight was the annual Tuolumne County Board of Education dinner where every school in the county nominates an exceptional teacher for the Excellence in Teaching award. Also, one teacher is selected as the Career Excellence award winner. This year, Sue Sperry was the very well earned recipient of this award. Sue is not one who seeks the lime light, and I had forgotten that the winner of this award has to give an acceptance speech. When County Schools Superintendent Joe Silva called Sue up to accept her award, she was clearly nervous. As she began to speak, however, her poise and humor made it seem like she regularly gives speeches to 200+ adults as opposed to 25 squirmy 5-year-olds. Sue's message was one of affirmations. She spoke about how she had to get letters of support for this award, and as she asked friends and family for these letters she was moved by what people had to say about her. She went on to say that she felt we did not tell each other enough about how much they mean to us, and how she had been working for the last month and a half on writing letters to those that mean so much to her. For someone who has spent 30 years talking to Kindergartners, Ms. Sperry's speech was elagant and touching. And her message was right on point. Sue, thank you. And to all of my staff, thank you for all you do! And hi, Mom!

Bad language

The other day during lunch, a kindergartener came up to me in the front of the cafeteria. He was very serious, and needed to talk to me immediately. I leaned down so he could report some serious wrong doing that had been perpetrated in the boys' room. "Mr. Mayers, when I was in the bathroom, I heard someone use a bad word." he reported. "Someone used the really bad 'E' word."

Still trying to figure that one out...

Snow?

Last night I was a little worried about the storm that had descended upon us. Dr. Keiter is at a conference in Sacramento, and so the job of calling a snow delay, which is normally his call, had now fallen on my shoulders. I wasn't too worried about it until I began to see lots of chatter at about 8:00 about snow on Facebook from students who live not far from school. Uh oh. Immediately my mind races to my snow tires which are still stacked neatly in the corner of the garage, where they have been since April. Hmm, this is a potential issue, as I remember trying to get through snow last year with my regular tires on. All four wheels spinning, and the truck traveling ninety degrees to the direction it was facing. Regardless to say, this morning I was a little relieved to see a very slight dusting of snow in the trees, and none on the ground. Guess who's changing to snow tires this weekend?

Halloween!

This morning we have a flock of fairies and horde of zombies wandering about on campus! Halloween, a school teacher's greatest nightmare! Get the kids hyped up on sugar and expectations of even more sugar tonight, and then let them put on masks! Fortunately, today is a minimum day (I've heard one of the neighboring schools is taking tomorrow off. Mental note to check out that idea for next year!). Also today, we have our talent show at the middle school, and then our parade starting at 12:00 (ending by 12:04). I think I'm letting my bias show through here a bit. Bah humbug!

Meetings! Yikes!

Two weeks ago I opened up my calendar and saw that I was jammed packed with IEP (Individual Educational Plan) meetings for two weeks straight. Most days had two meetings, and some had three! Yikes! As I looked at them, I saw that most of these were speech IEP, which make sense, as we have 60 days to complete the assessments for an initial IEP, and most all of these were kindergartners who had issues during their speech screening in the first few weeks of school. I'm now plowing through these IEP meetings, and am thankful that there is a great staff on board so as I'm holed up in meetings for what seems like all day, everything functions smoothly. Where would I be without Brenda and Kathy running this place?

Wednesday

Well, needed to update the blog to stay in the habit of doing so. Last week our Kindergartners went to play with the firemen, and they got to spray the hoses on the fire engines. That is always a fun adventure for our little ones.

We are close to wrapping up our fun run collection period. Last year we collected over $10,000, but so far this year, we are at about $4,000. Certainly seems like the sour economy has taken a bite out of our fundraising campaigns.

Mrs. Reed, our Title I teacher at Black Oak, has left for her maternity leave. We are hugely fortunate to have been able to convince Helen Birtwhistle to come back and fill her old position for the remainder of the calendar year here. It is great to have such a great, caring teacher come back to us!

Fun run

Shoot, I'm thought I had posted this last week, but I see I put it in "drafts", as opposed to "post." Here's what I had meant to post last week...

Well today we held both the Black Oak and Twain Harte Middle School fun runs. We had originally scheduled Black Oak's yesterday, but due to the rain, we had to move Black Oaks to right before Twain Harte Middle Schools. On paper it was a good idea, but for those of us (me, mainly) who wanted to run in both of them, it was maybe not the best idea! Anyway, it was a beautiful day, and the kids had a great time running in circles. The 8th graders did a great job helping the littler kids during their fun run, and then the 4th graders had to step up and help when the middle school had their run. All in all it was a successful day, and thanks to all the parents who came to participate and cheer on their runners. Also thanks to the staff who came out to help support, and to Sonny for lending us his sound system.

Parents, remember that students can continue to collect their pledges for their fun run until Friday, October 21st to be eligible for the prizes!