AM Announcements - December 15

AM Announcements
December 15, 2008

1. Today is Day 72.

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:

Monday: December 15
Interim Reports go home
Super Kids begins

Tuesday: December 16
McDonald's Night - 5:00-8:00 PM - North Point McDonalds
A's and Bees Tutoring - 6:00-8:00 PM
Meet The Principal - 6:30-7:30

Wednesday: Decemeber 17
Hope Presbyterian provides breakfast goodies
Title-1 Plan Peer Review - 8:00-9:00 AM
RJR Jazz Band - 10:00 AM in the gym

Thursday: December 18
Christmas parties 1:00-2:00 PM

Friday: December 19
Dollar Dress Down Day
Box Tops for Education collected

4. At the end of each day please do the following:
a. PLEASE CLOSE ALL BLINDS
b. TURN ALL TV's OFF
c. TURN OFF ALL MONITORS and COMPUTERS (CPU's)

Despite placing this in morning announcements for several weeks, we continue to find monitors and TV's left on at the end of the day. Please make sure this becomes part of your normal routine at the end of the day.

5. Ms. Powell, Ms. Mincer, Ms. Marston and I met with Dr. Martin, Ms. Bigham and Dr. Sheehan on Friday morning. The meeting went very well. We were able to review our data as well as show them what changes we have made in order to address the opportunities the data provides. Dr. Martin was especially interested in our blog and the way we are using it.

6. Upcoming dates for your calendar:
a. December 17 - SIP Title-1 Plan Peer Review 8:00-9:00 AM
b. December 17 - RJR Jazz Band - 10:00 AM
c. December 18 and 19 - Classified staff members depart an hour early

7. Our last health inspection found that some teachers were in possession of cleaning supplies that did not come from the warehouse. As we all know, these items should not be here at school. OSHA requires that we have MSDS sheets on all approved chemicals or we are in violation and could be assessed a substantial fine. If you have things in your rooms that are not approved for use, please take them home now. We will be having a follow-up inspection this week as a result of what was found last week. Thanks for your cooperation.

8. Classified staff members are to fill out their time sheets on a DAILY basis. They should access their electronic time sheet when they first arrive at the beginning of the day and enter their arrival time. Then they should access it again just prior to departure and enter the time they leave. Principals had a lengthy presentation by Kerry Crutchfield regarding this issue. We will now be checking time sheets randomly to insure that they are being filled out appropriately. I have a Power Point to share with classified staff after the first of the year.

9. This is the final week prior to a two week vacation. The easiest way to keep a lid on your students is to develop exciting hands-on lessons in which they participate. If your grade level has not reviewed the Classroom Walk-through Data handed out to your SIT representative, they should do so at this weeks planning session. This data reflects walk-throughs for the entire school. Some grade levels have requested the data from their grade level only. I can print that for any grade level desiring it in less than 3 minutes. All you have to do is ask.

10. There is a Dollar Dress Down Day this coming Friday.

11. Our Superkids officer, Kim Ruff, begins today. She will be out on the breezeway to welcome car and bus riders.

12. In order for rooms to be cleaned daily, chair must be placed on top of desks or tables when the children leave at the end of the day. Please make this part of your end of the day routine.

13. The Title-1 staff will be here from 8:00-9:00 AM on Wednesday to conduct a Peer Review of our SIP because it will serve as our Title-1 plan for the next year.

14. Please congratulate Marie Larson who has been voted Speas' Teacher of the Year by her peers. Way to go Marie!

15. To the anonymous suggestion that Speas do something different from Night Beneath the Stars due to the current economic climate:

The SIT team determined that we would hold The Night Beneath the Stars in alternating years as a fund-raising activity. I believe that SIT would be willing to consider any alternative proposal that came from the staff. The most important thing to consider here is, no matter what Speas chooses to do in this arena, who will be the individual(s) responsible for it; who will organize it; who will contribute their time and effort; and, in the end make sure that it comes about.

Another issue to consider is the fund-raising potential of a given activity. SIT would have to determine what activity would most likely generate the greatest amount of funds to support our programs.

I would suggest that you work through your SIT representative or come to SIT yourself to put forward your ideas, their rationale and a general plan for bringing them about. Then we could determine what would be the most expeditious way to proceed.

16. On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.
Will Rogers (1879 - 1935)

Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him.
John Barrymore (1882 - 1942), last words

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
Aesop (620 BC - 560 BC)

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)