AM Announcements - June 10

AM Announcements
June 10, 2009

1. Today is Day 178.

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:

Wednesday: June 10
Class Picnics - 12:00

Thursday: June 11
Honor Roll Assembly - 8:15 AM
Fifth Grade Celebration - 10:00 AM
Fifth Grade Social - 11:30 AM

Friday: June 12
Dollar Dress Down Day
Last Day of School
Brief staff meeting - 2:45

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

5. You will find a sheet in your boxes from Cathy Smith. This is a simple two question survey you are to ask your students. The first question is, "Do you have a computer in your home?" The second is, " If you do have a computer, do you have access to the internet." Please take care of this first thing this morning and give the results to Ms. Smith. This is for a grant program being proposed by WS/FCS schools to boost computer and internet access.

6. Upcoming dates for your calendar:
a. June 16 - Retirement Breakfast - WS Children's Museum
b. June 16 - Staff Luncheon - Golden Corral
c. June 17 - Staff members leave 2 hours early
d. June 17 - Review Committees - 7:30-12:00 - using rooms 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 39
e. June 18 - Furlough Day - Only staff working - Cokley, Higgins, Ireland and Reichert

7. I filled one of our classroom vacancies last night with a surplus teacher from Union Cross. I am certain she will be a real asset to our staff and students. We are still not able to hire from the outside until all surplus teachers have found positions. I have two more individuals to interview, one today and one tomorrow.

8. Yesterday five reams of paper were placed in the Hive. They were the last of our paper supply. Mr. Ireland put five reams in last Friday, walked down to the kindergarten, came back by the Hive and found only two remaining. The others had already disappeared.

9. The power of tutoring. We had five students in third and fifth grades who found themselves qualifying for an automatic waiver because they had come withing two standard errors on the EOG and they demonstrated a year's growth. The third component of the waiver process was that they had to attend tutoring. Students meeting all three requirements were promoted. Three of our five met the requirements. Two didn't attend tutoring. Now they will have to attend summer school and take the test again. Both could wind up being retained if they don't achieve level 3. If only they had come to tutoring, the could have avoided summer school and the potential for being retained. The moral of the story for our second and fourth grade students is, "Come to tutoring!"

10. Class picnics are today at 12:00 PM. If you need tables or other items. please see Mr. Ireland first thing this morning so he is not caught by surprise at the last minute.

11. If you have not sent a note home to parents of your Honor Roll students alerting them that their child has made the Honor Roll for Fourth Quarter, please do so today so they can attend if they desire.

12. The following students are winners in Bowling for Breakfast initiative from our child nutrition department:

Lizeth Aguilera, Elias Amaya, Mya Armstrong, Daniel Barrera, Jamiyo Dye, Benjamin Floyd, Ana Franco-Gomez, Ana Guajardo, Areta Seals, aand Isela Quintero-Gomez.

Each of them has won a pass that entitles them to a free game of bowling every day for the entire summer. That's 92 free games of bowling. We will give out their passes during the Honor Roll assembly tomorrow. Congratulations Winners!

13. If you are a K-1 teacher and have not turned in your luggage tags to Ms. Rhodes, do so this morning. Make sure a list of students who returned them accompanies the tags.

14. Please collect the lanyards and student name tags and turn them in to Ms. Rhodes. We will use these at the beginning of next year so that staff will know our returning students.

15. Please remind your Safety Patrol members that they are to turn in their belts and badges to Ms. Powell tomorrow morning.

16. Never judge a book by its movie.
J. W. Eagan

The key to being a good manager is keeping the people who hate me away from those who are still undecided.
Casey Stengel (1890 - 1975)

The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.
Alfred Hitchcock (1899 - 1980), In Simon Rose, Classic Film Guide (1995)

A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.
Sidney J. Harris