Friday, August 31, 2012

Welcome back Oak Hill Eagles!  It has been a great first week of school.  The students have transitioned back into school well.  Oak Hill is such a better place when students are here. 

The staff and I spent time over the summer planning for the upcoming year and learning how to bond as a team.  With so many new faces, I felt that learning how to work collaboratively was important.  To demonstrate how to work together, the staff and I completed several different tasks. Below Mrs. Faulkner and her partner, Mrs. Barre built a tower using marshmallows and spaghetti.  The task was to see who could build the tallest tower in ten minutes.  

Then on the first day of school, Mrs. Faulkner attempted the same activity with her students to show them the importance of being a team.  I think the student towers were more creative than the teachers, but don't tell them I said that.
 
As I walked the building the week.  Students were already engaged in learning.  In Mrs. Palmer's PE class, students were jumping rope.
 In Mrs. Calabrese's class, students had already learned what "independent" reading meant and what it looked like.

We also learned this week that two of the students in Mrs. Grimm's third class last year had their poetry selections chosen for publication. 

With one week under our belt, we are ready to start our reading tutoring programs for our primary students.  The programs are called Reading Rangers and SOARING.  Volunteers work with our struggling first and second grade readers.  If you are interested in helping, there is a sign-up list outside the computer lab door or you can sign-up on our website.

I would also like to thank everyone's support for being calm with the bus overcrowding concern.  I think the situation is finally resolved.  If your student rides the rabbit bus, please look for letters changing the route.

As usual, if you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to ask.

Have a great Labor Day Holiday weekend. See you back at school on Tuesday.