Weekly Recap

Okay, time for an update...

This was a busy week. On Tuesday we held our Instructional Study Team (IST) meetings. This is a time for us to "circle the wagons" on students with which we are having concerns. We held 8 meetings and had our psychologist, parents and teachers as well as myself come together. During these meetings, we look at what issues the student is having and try to develop a plan to help that child succeed.

Wednesday I went to visit Pinecrest and conducted a couple teacher observations. Wednesday evening was the county spelling bee. We were represented by Mia and Lizzy from Twain Harte and Mariah from Pinecrest in the 7th grade and Leah, Randy and Camilla in the 8th. All of our students performed well, and extra recognition goes to Camilla who placed 5th and Mariah who placed 3rd. Nice work Spellers!

Thursday morning the Tuolumne County Association of California School Administrators hosted their annual "Every Student Succeeds" awards breakfast at the Elks Lodge. Randy Hart was our nominee. Randy has overcome a difficult situation at home and is truly a leader at our school. He is one of the nicest young men you will ever meet.

After the breakfast, I dashed up to Dodge to help chaperone our ski trip. The conditions were great and the kids all did a great job. I then had to come down early from the ski trip for our School Site Council meeting.

Friday night we had our third dance of the year. A lot of the kids were pretty wiped out from a combination of the ski trip the day before, and coming down from the sugar rush from all the Valentine's cookies, candies and cupcakes!

It's hard to believe this was only a four day week! I'm glad I have three days to recover!

Rescheduled Ski trip

The trip we had scheduled for the 22nd of January will be rescheduled to Thursday, February 11th. All the 5th-8th grade students who were eligible to attend the trip on the 22nd and signed up for that one will be allowed to go on the trip on the 11th. The fourth grade students will go on the trip on February 26th, as we had originally changed them before the snow day on the 22nd. With any luck, we'll get the rest of our trips in without much difficulty due to weather!

We finally succumbed!

Unfortunately, even the hardy stock of the Twain Harte-Long Barn Union School District had to throw in the towel today. As of 5:30 this morning we were still going to try to make school happen today, but when the power went out at 5:35, we had to rethink our plans, and call a snow day.

This is our third snow day of the year. In case you were wondering, our school calendar only has one additional day built in for a snow day. That day is Friday, June 11th, one day after our previously scheduled end of the year. Now with these snow days we will go to the 11th. We only have to make up one day, as the State requires us to build in a snow day in our calendar based on the average number of snow days called in the past 5 years. Our previous average has been more than 1, but less than 2 days. With the 3 snow days this year, it may up our average to over 2 days, and therefore trigger an additional snow day to be added to our next year's calendar. We do not have to make up any more than the one day for this year, however.

As for today's ski trip... Well, I think it goes without saying that we didn't go. We'll have to try to reschedule that one for later in the year. At this rate, we might still be able to ski on June 11th!

Snow, rain, and wind!

Well I'm glad one of my New Year's resolutions was not to update my blog more often, as I have obviously fallen behind on that!

This has certainly been a wild week weather wise. The storms this week have been keeping us all indoors and the "natives" are getting restless! So far this week we have been able to sneak through with only having rainy day schedules. This morning we did have to call a snow transportation day as it would have been difficult for the buses to navigate some of the narrower steeper roads off the main highway. As I write this (watching American Idol at almost 9:00 on Wednesday night!), and the rain continues to come down (at my house at about 3000'), I do not know what tomorrow holds. At the minimum we will be on a snow transportation day, and possibly a late start. Keep your radios tuned to our local stations tomorrow morning!

This Friday we also have our second ski trip planned, and this trip may become a victim to the weather. We are trying to hold off until the last moment to make this call. We'll look at our forecasts tomorrow morning and let everyone know.

New Year!

Happy new year to everyone! I'm now getting back into the rhythm of school. I have to get back in the habit of being regulated by bells (or a clock for that matter!). Additionally, I need to get back to the habit of updating my blog. This was especially apparent after a phone call to my mom this afternoon, where she asked me to update my blog, so here you go, Mom!

This last week we've added a couple of new students, and I always try to walk them around and get them introduced to their teachers and classrooms. Both our new boys (6th and 8th graders) already have quite a few friends and so they pretty quickly wanted to ditch me and hang out with their friends (can you blame them?).

I've set myself a few New Year's resolutions for this year. My personal resolutions are the typical; eat better, get more exercise, lose weight (and make "Pro" on Wii Sports Tennis!). My professional resolutions include trying to stay up on my paperwork more. I find myself moving piles of papers too many times, and need to develop a better system.

Pinecrest Pagent

Last night I attended Pinecrest School's presentation of "The Littlest Reindeer." This year, Mrs. Hebert's K-2 class were the stars, and they did an outstanding job. On a cuteness scale of 1-10, I don't think anyone in attendance would argue that it was, at least, a 14. The kindergartners as elves produced many "Awwws" from the audience, and there was no way you could not smile as the whole cast performed. The older students serenaded the audience with traditional Christmas carols before the performance as well. It was great to get to meet some of the parents and families of these students, and I felt very welcomed. Kudos to Mrs. Hebert, Mr. Brown, and Ms. Terry for all their hard work and dedication to our students. It takes a lot of hard work and extra hours to put on a show like this, and from the smiles on the faces of the parents, it was well appreciated!

Choir concert

Last night was our winter choir concert. If you had a chance to attend it, I'm sure you were impressed by the talent our students. As I said last night, there is nothing that says Christmas to me more than children singing on the stage. It was great to look out at the audience and see a sea of smiling faces. The students all did fantastic, and I want to thank the teachers who came to help and support their classes. Of course, the largest thanks go to Caitlyn Randall, our music teacher, who singlehandedly orchestrated the entire concert. Without her dedication to our students they would be missing out on an important component to their education. I believe arts can have a tremendous impact on our students, and I hope to be able to expand our arts program at our schools when the budget situation settles down more.