Parent survey

It's the time of year when we are starting to look towards next year and begin making plans. to that end, I'd like to get feedback from our parents and families. I've created a parent survey to get your input to help guide us as we plan for next year. This survey is anonymous, as I want people to feel comfortable with leaving both positive responses and constructive criticism. The survey is available online through a link on the district's home page (www.thsd.k12.ca.us) or directly at www.surveymonkey.com/s/QWMCFB3. We do have paper copies available in the office, but I figure if you are into blog reading, you are probably into online surveys!

Tweeting...

I have recently set up a Twitter account for our schools. To be honest, I've never really seen the point of Twitter for social networking because I really don't need to know what anyone is doing at every single moment of the day. However, you can't argue the practicality of pushing out information to folks at the push of a button. My thought behind the Twitter account is to be able to send out notices about snow days (probably done with those for this year!), reminders of minimum days, or emergency information. I don't really plan on using it that often, as I don't think I'll be tweeting about what I'm having for lunch. Also, one of the practical issues I'll have to overcome is the filter at school. When I checked today, Twitter is blocked by our filter. I'll have to work away around that to make it work (probably just ask a student to help me!). If you are interested in following us on Twitter, we are at www.twitter.com/thschools.

Awards and hams!

This past week has been one of acknowledgment and accomplishment. Wednesday night, we had many of our students participate in the Tuolumne County "History Day" competition. Our students had many great projects, and special congratulations to Sarah Peterson who took third for her paper on mining, and Johnathan Olsen and Tyler Inwood with their project on the impact of the John Deere tractor took first place! John and Tyler now go to Pasadena to represent Tuolumne County at the State level competition! Super work guys, and nice picture on the front page of the newspaper!

Also in the newspaper were the results of the Pinecrest Invitational ski/board tournament I wrote about earlier. Included in the article was a picture of Danny Kelsay, one of our 2nd grade skiers! Good day for Twain Harte in the local media!

Last night I attended the "Employees Who Make a Difference" Awards presentation. This is an annual award given out by the Tuolumne County Association of California School Administrators. We were proud to nominate Sharon Gianelli from Pinecrest School, Michelle Dake from the district office, and Kathleen Olsen from Twain Harte Middle School. These folks (along with everyone else at our schools!) really do make a difference in our student's lives.

When I finished up with the awards banquet, I then returned back to school to catch what I could of the Family Talent Show, and spaghetti feed that B.O.T.H. was sponsoring. There was a great turn out, but by the time I got there, it was nearly over. I did get to see the grand finale act, however. Dylan, a 7th grader, balanced a 4-layer cake on his head for one minute! It was death defying! Everyone seemed to have a good time, and I'm looking forward to seeing the video, as I've heard rumors of an act titled "Ode to an Armpit." I'm sure the actors' parents must be so proud...

Ski season & Pinecrest Invitational

Last Friday was the conclusion of our ski program for this year. I want to say a huge thank you to Betsy Griffith and all of the parent volunteers who make this program possible. With the amount of work involved, I'm sure this program would not be nearly as successful without their help. Personally, I've been pleased to have the ability to brush up on my skiing skills, and see the kids on the slopes, some testing the waters for the first time, some who've grown up on the slopes. I know my mom has also really enjoyed getting back into skiing (Hi Mom!).

Today we had the 39th annual Pinecrest Invitational. It was great to see the teachers from Pinecrest and parents from both Twain Harte and Pinecrest. There was some spirited friendly teasing between the parents from the two camps. The kids all did well, and congratulations to Pinecrest Elementary for taking the overall title once again.

An interesting side note, after the competition concluded, I hit the slopes with some of the kids, and we skied until the lifts closed at 4:00. I then drove several of the boys home, and I was heading by school, I saw our 8th grade volleyball game was still going on, so I popped in for a few minutes. It was great to see 4 of the girls who competed at the ski tournament playing on our volleyball team! Oh to have that much energy still!

What's new

It's been a long time since I've updated this blog. Just fallen out of the habit, and am now going to try to fall back into the habit!

Things have been humming along at school. Last Friday was the end of the second trimester. The teachers have been doing great work with the kids and getting them ready for the CST tests in May.

We have completed our noon-league basketball season and have just started volleyball. The school teams played their first games today, and I know the 6th grade girls crushed Curtis Creek. Our 7th and 8th grade teams were away, so I don't know the results of those games yet.

The biggest challenge over the last couple of weeks has been trying to keep the kids off the ice on the blacktop. Even when it is nice and sunny, the blacktop right at the base of our blue wall stays icy pretty much all day. I believe this is categorized as an "attractive nuisance" as the kids seem attracted to the fun sliding like moths to a flame. Oh well, that's why I get paid the big bucks?

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!