Fun Training

I have been very fortunate to be selected to attend a literacy training put on by the Utah State Office of Education. It has been exciting to see other districts discuss the need to change and follow a model that more closely follows that of our district. I guess when we make progress as significant as ours others begin to notice.

The last training we had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Nancy Livingston. She is an amazing presenter with a tremendous understanding of children and children's literature. If you ever have the occasion to listen to her I would suggest taking advantage of it.

In addition to the literacy training, I had the pleasure of attending a technology training with three of our teachers (Mrs. Browning, Mrs. Pfleiderer, and Ms. Porter). We learned some great techniques for using video and photo cameras to extend the writing process. It was a great experience, where we had to take the roll of students, complete with homework. :-( These assignments helped us to solidify our understanding of the process and the benefits of using this medium.

I am excited about the prospect of helping students utilize these techniques. In the future I'll add some of the projects we worked on at the training and are currently creating to this blog. I haven't had time recently as the new school has taken up a lot of my "spare" time.

Above and Beyond

There are many people that I get to work with that really amaze me. Teachers that spend countless hours preparing for, crying about (actually happens), and stressing over individual students as well as their classes as a whole, secretaries that go out of their way to talk to a student that has had a hard day. I hope I never become so accustom to these acts that I see them as just part of a regular day. However, it is a part of my everyday experiences. The staff here at Hurricane Elementary is truly stellar and has a deep concern for the education and well being of all of the students in the school. Never have I heard the comment, “he/she is not my student.” Rather, when a child is in need and I ask for assistance from someone I feel can help those who are asked jump at the opportunity to help. Never have I been asked, “Why doesn’t [the child’s teacher] take care of this?”

Recently though, I had an experience that goes even farther to help students. Someone had flattened some bike tires while they were in the bike rack. The tires had not been damaged the air was simply let out. The children were devastated and were seeking help. Mr. Lowe our school counselor was able to hook the students up with Mr. Humphries our custodian. Mr. Humphries was asked to help them get their tires inflated to which he happily agreed. While he was pumping up the tires he realized that the bikes were in need of a tune up. He asked the kids to bring their bikes to him the next morning and let them know he would fix the bikes for them. They did and so Mr. Humphries tightened loose bolts, greased bearings, and fixed brakes. All while cleaning up after sick kids, kids who “miss” in the bathroom, kids who throw things on the ground and respond when asked to pick it up, “that is what the janitor is for”, spills that end up all over the lunchroom, not to mention the sinks and drinking fountains that need constant attention. He did not think about any of the things he would have to get done, he did not think that he would have to spend additional hours at school to catch up on the day to day things. He never sought recognition for what he did in fact, he actually never even told me. Mr. Lowe asked me if I was aware because it was such a tremendous act of kindness.

I am grateful that I get to have the opportunity to work here. The teachers and staff are truly awesome, the students are great, the parents are supportive, and there is a real feeling of belonging here.

The Best Part

Last week I was invited to be the "Spotlight of the Week" in Mrs. Pfeilderer's class. I was a little nervous at first.

It was a great experience. First, I went in and answered a bunch of questions. Some were, "What's your favorite food?" Tacos. "What's your favorite color?" Purple, but not all the time. "What's your favorite animal?" Hawk. "What's your favorite thing to do?" Geocaching. "What is on of your talents?" I can't sing, play the piano (or any other instrument for that matter), dance, do Karate, or anything like that. I am good at fixing things.

The next day I got to go in and read aloud to the students. They were reading Mathilda. One of the things I miss most about not being in the classroom anymore is getting to read to the kids everyday. I like to really get into it. I love it when I stop to ask them what is going to happen, and they get so excited as they guess. I love stopping after someone's prediction has either been proven or disproven and ask them to guess again. I love the discussion about what caused us to believe what we thought was going to happen. Sometimes the discussion is better when our prediction was wrong. (Authors enjoy writing, and we enjoy the twists) It was great to have that experience again!

The third day I was supposed to share my talent. I thought it might be boring to ask someone to bring in something for me to fix. (Plus I was worried that I might not be able to) So I asked if I could take the class on a geocaching expedition. Mr. Lowe helped me hide a box full of tennis balls and recorded the coordinates. Then I took the information into the classroom and using the projector, computer, and Elmo I demonstrated how to look up a geocache from the website and program the coordinates into the GPS. Then we went out to search for our cache. It is hard to get 8 & 9 year olds to comprehend things like, the GPS says go one direction but there might be something in the way so you have to go around it. (They wanted to just walk right through the building. I was worried that we would be to noisy.) We eventually found our way around the building and I tried to explain how we had to use the clues to find it because the GPS only gets us close, but they were so excited about seeing it before we read the clues again that they wouldn't stop telling me that it was, "Right there! In the tree!" I had to smile. I still wanted them to help me "figure out" the clues so I let them know they were right, and asked if they would help me anyway just so we had the practice. They seemed to like that idea. Sorry, if the tennis balls have caused you problems at home but the students sure loved getting them.

The last two days were more difficult. The last day I was supposed to have someone from my family come in and talk about work. I don't have a lot of family here and with a child in Kindergarten, one in the Intermediate school, and one in 4th grade it was nearly impossible for my wife to be home when the kids got home and come over to help with this. So, sadly I wasn't able to take part in those days.

I love being in the classrooms, even just to watch. I am grateful to Mrs. Pfleiderer for the invitation to remember the best part of our job. The kids! Seeing the light go on when a concept has been difficult and they all of a sudden "get it". The innocence which makes it so impossible to understand why we would look at clues when we had already found the answer. The excitement of trying something new. The trust that the principal (or teacher) said it would be fun, so this must be something to get excited about. (I bet, if as parents, you gave your child a used tennis ball the excitement wouldn't be near as great as it was that day. Even if you hid it inside a box and placed it up in a tree.)

Today's Fire Drill

Ever wonder what happens when a 5 year old decides to explore his/her curiosity? Today we had an excellent example of exactly what can happen.

Let me give you a little background. As teachers we practice how to evacuate the school when the fire alarm goes off, how to go from the classroom to the library, computer lab, lunchroom, office, bathroom, etc. We teach how we want them to sharpen pencils, put books away, let us know if they are having hot or cold lunch, the proper way to hold scissors, etc. We have to date neglected to teach about the use of one little thing. The function of that little thing has been on the mind of one of our young students since the first day of school. The thoughts running through the active little mind might have been, "I wonder why no one ever uses those." Well, today that student decided to use the experimental process to learn what that one little thing could do. I'm sure the thought was, "It has to be cool there are a bunch of them all over the school." So this young innocent mind called for the little hand to reach up, grab the handle and pull down. I can only imagine the jump this little heart made when the alarms started to sound. Only to be confronted with the horrible fear of being responsible for those big trucks showing up, everyone leaving the school, the adults counting people, and of course that horrible sound that would not stop. Yes, we had an unscheduled fire drill today. It was actually good timing, we needed to do a drill, and now we have a student who learned a lesson that will never be forgotten. Those little red and white squares with the handles that say PULL are going to cause a lot of noise and make a bunch of big trucks with big men come visit the school.

I love the experimental process. Watching the students take charge of their own learning and try different things in order to better understand the world around them is what really keeps me going.

The Day the Lights Were Out in Hurricane

What an exciting time it is when the lights are out. It is good to have those experiences every once in a while because we learn things. For example, some schools learned that letting the students into the school and try to use the hallways with teacher supervision didn't end with positive results.

I know it was cold yesterday but the teachers were scrambling using cell phones for light (a lesson learned. . .BUY flashlights) trying to work out a plan C (most if not all teachers regularly have a plan B already in place but often it required the use of electricity to complete the preparation) which would be beneficial to all of the students yet not require the electricity we take for granted.

I appreciate all of the parents that stayed to help the teachers once we were in the school and all of you who stayed with the children outside before school. It is comforting for the children to have you around when things are as unusual as a long power outage.

I want to let you know what happened once we started school. As the principal it was great to see. We are fortunate to only have 3 classrooms without windows to the outside. Those three classes had moved to double up with other classes or moved into a classroom used for special services. I went to every classroom before the lights came on. I was excited to see that everything was running as normal. All students who work with the special education teacher were there, every classroom was teaching reading, writing (mostly K-3rd grades), and math (4th-5th grades), students were complaining that they weren't allowed to just play, and this was something I was happy they were disappointed in. We have excellent teachers that are dedicated to the education of your children and the power outage was a great opportunity for that to be demonstrated.

Links to Hair Cut

Here is the link to the story in the Hurricane Times, and what aired on KCSG Wednesday night. I want to thank them for covering the story. I also want to thank Carl Lemar from KONY and Canyon Media for all they do for the great kids here in Hurricane.

Hurricane Times http://67.59.159.202/article.cfm?articleID=18229
KCSG http://www.kcsg.com/36348939.html

Thanks again to all the students, parents, and staff for donating to such a worthy cause.

Now We Have Really Done It!!!!!

With the help of the teachers and the PTO we made our goal of $750.00. Check back after Wednesday to see the pictures of the whole ordeal.

My wife is a little sad that I will be bald for our Christmas pictures but. . . Well what can I say.

Congratulations!!! This is a great organization that helps many children in our school.