There are many different days during the school year that stand out from the rest of the days, but there is only one day that is my all time favorite day of the year. My favorite day of the year is Special Olympics Day! Seeing the faces of our athletes as they come off of the bus is the best feeling in the world. Watching our entire school cheer and high five their peers as they come off the bus and make their way through the school...it's priceless.
I feel like every year, this event and how the school responds and gets involved with the preparation and celebration gets better and better each year. This year we had classes making books for their friends. We had classes participating in the practices with their classmates. We even had a class watching videos of the events on the day they were happening...the closest thing to live streaming! And the students in the class were saying how they had coached their friend and look at how awesome he was doing.
The feeling in the building when the whole school gets ready to welcome the athletes home...it's amazing. I wish I could bottle that feeling up and share it throughout the year. Maybe it's actually there all year already. It just happens to come out in full force on Special Olympics day. I know that it was hard for me to fight back the tears in my eyes as I watched all of our students. I was so proud of our athletes. I was proud of our students for showing their friends how much they cared about them. I was proud of our staff for encouraging all of our students to be good people. When it comes down to it...that's what we are trying to do isn't it? We are trying to mold future minds and create amazing human beings. Human beings who are kind, who care about each other, who celebrate each other and appreciate each other's uniqueness. I saw a building full of amazing human beings on Friday. Thank you.
Here are some video clips from my favorite day of the year...
Let's keep the amazingness going for the next 35 days!
I got some more new picture books! Let me know if you want to borrow either of these:
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| A great book about a car ride; reminded me of how often we used to ask my parents...are we there yet?! |
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| One bear follows his dream to play music and learns about the value of friendship |
Events this week:
Tuesday - Math PD session in the am for 2nd grade, Math PD session in the pm for 3rd grade, 4th grade canoe trip
Wednesday - 4th grade canoe trip, K chorus practice @ 9:30
Thursday - 4th grade canoe trip, Eric Carle enrichment program for K and 1st, some staff at CPI Refresher
Friday - Eric Carle enrichment program for K and 1st, Dianna and Liz at SLT meeting in the am, Elementary Curriculum Committee meeting 12-3:00
Saturday - Annual Trivia Night at 7:00 at Groton Country Club, sponsored by GDEF
Great things I noticed last week:
- I just love seeing all these great t-shirts that focus on kindness messages!
- 2nd graders were out in the hall working on their forces and motion lab reports.
- Kindergarteners earned a zoo day, so this group was building a zoo in the block area!
Check it out:
Just a short little post to get your wheels spinning about how we can approach discipline in a different way: https://www.districtadministration.com/article/putting-positive-spin-school-discipline
A great reminder, 10 Habits of Positive Educators, check out this blog post: http://karawelty.com/2016/09/03/10habitsofpositiveeducators/
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