AM Announcements - October 02

AM Announcements
October 02, 2008

1. Today is Day 28.

2. It is the mission of Speas Elementary School to provide its students with the tools necessary to successfully meet the challenges they will face in a diverse world.

3. Calendar items for this week:

Thursday: October 02
Teacher of the Year Banquet - 4:30-6:30 Powell and Goliszek
Reichert off-campus all day
PTA Board Meeting - 5:30-6:30
Make It, Take It Night - 6:30-7:30

Friday: October 03
Reichert off-campus all day

4. The Dixie Classic Fair begins tomorrow. Keep that in mind as you plan your assignments for the week of October 6.

5. Now that you've had an introduction to Flickr and Photo Story 3, plan a lesson using them sometime during the next two weeks. You will be working in small groups during the next staff meeting on October 14. We want you to share either the Photo Story you made to use with your students or a student made photo story with your group as part of the meeting. Keep it small and simple to begin with. If you need help, please feel free to call upon us to assist you. We discovered today that Photo Story needs to be downloaded onto one of your classroom computers. We have a team coming on Monday to take care of this for each class. Ms. Smith received this information today from Technology.

6. The PTA Membership dues are $3.50 per person. You can see Ms. Fletcher who will be happy to help you.

7. Just a reminder that Dr. Martin visits Speas next Thursday.

8. Social Committee dues are still being collected. Please take care of your portion. The purpose of Social Committee is to speak for the staff in times of celebration and sorrow. It benefits everyone. Please find it in your heart to contribute your dues of $25.

9. Yesterday the office staff was off-campus celebrating an office birthday. This has been a long-standing practice that has been communicated to our assistant superintendent and even to school board members. While we were off-campus I received an anonymous e-mail response to AM Announcements on our blog. The e-mail wanted to know what the expectations were for the staff when office staff members were out of the building. Specifically this e-mail dealt with how the staff should respond to the following situations:

"...a sick child, a parent needing to speak to someone or a member of the Title 1 team making a surprise walk through? How should we handle these situations and who should we direct visitors to? "

It should be understood that whenever we are off-campus we have an individual or individuals in the office or accessible in order to deal with all of these issues. We also review the utilization of the office walkie-talkie/cell phone and in emergency situations can be back on campus in a matter of minutes. Should the Title-1 Team, an assistant superintendent or Dr. Martin arrive on campus for a visit and inquire as to our location, I would expect the individual(s) manning the office to tell them where we are and what we are doing. Anyone wishing to discuss this matter further should feel free to drop by the office or make an appointment. I will be happy to listen to their concerns. This was an anonymous comment sent from the blog. Therefore I am addressing it in the blog since I can't talk directly with the individual who submitted it.

10. Family Fun Night is November 7. If you need to review your assignment, please check the past three editions of the blog.

11. There will be a PTA Board Meeting tonight from 5:30-6:30 PM before the Make-It-Take Night.

12. Please keep Martha Martin and her family in your thoughts and prayers. Her father is quite ill and they have been called to his bedside as the doctors believe it his passing is imminent.

13. Cathy Smith had a request to provide directions for staff members who wish to comment on the morning blog post. At the bottom of each AM Announcements are three highlighted words. The first is the time the Post was submitted. The second is the number of Comments and the third is any Links to this post. Simply click on the word Comments and a new window will open up for you to type in your comments. You can then choose from one of four choices to either be identified in your comment or be anonymous. Once you have selected a choice, click on the link Publish Your Comment. It will then be posted to the blog

14. When you remove a book set from the Guided Reading cabinets, please place your red card in its place indicating where the set is for other teachers.

15. Ms. Powell and Ms. Goliszek are at the Teacher of the Year Banquet from 4:30-6:30 and will join Make It, Take It night as soon as they finish. Ms. Marston will be in charge and welcome the parents in Ms. Powell's absence.

16. Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something.
Pancho Villa (1877 - 1923), last words

Students achieving Oneness will move on to Twoness.
Woody Allen (1935 - )

You don't have to suffer to be a poet; adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.
John Ciardi (1916 - 1986)

I didn't really say everything I said.
Yogi Berra (1925 - )