T.E.A.M.

 Principal ponderings...

It didn't take long for me to say yes when Marie Kuniholm came to me several weeks ago and asked, "Do you think we could plan a special surprise for one of my students?"  How could I say no to being part of the best surprise ever?!  Fast forward to Friday afternoon and I would say that thanks to a team effort, we pulled off something amazing.  

It's been two days, but I am still smiling and tearing up when I think about the moment when Maverick ran into his dad's arms.  And the fact that he said he couldn't wait to snuggle in bed with his dad...well that is just about the sweetest thing ever.  

During our assembly, I reminded everyone that "Together Everyone Achieves More...T.E.A.M."  I saw how true that statement was on Friday.  Marie got the ball rolling with brainstorming with me about how we could make an assembly work.  She started coordinating with the family.  When Marie had to be out, Shelley Brennan stepped in to continue coordinating with the family. Liz Bercume had her class, 1K's buddies, make posters.  Merle Olson had the 5th grade student council members make posters as well.  Lindsay Dupuis created and laminated the letters to spell "teamwork."  Karen Haynes, our PTA President, reached out to a friend who works in PR.  She created a press release and sent it out to all of her press connections.  Laura Ramos hid mom and dad in her office and then helped them with their cue of when to enter the gym.  And of course all of the kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade students and staff helped us create the assembly.  

It took teamwork and all of those people doing their part.  Teamwork is defined as the combined action of a group of people.  It took the combined actions of the Mayo community to create one single moment that I don't think any of the adults or kids will forget.  Working together, we created a special memory for Maverick and his dad.  Teamwork is a powerful thing.  Now, more than ever, we need teamwork in our lives.  Our kids need to see teamwork in action.  There is so much division.  So many silos happening, groups and people working in isolation, pulling people in different directions.  

As Helen Keller once said, "Alone we can do so little; together we can so much."

Our phrase that I used so much last year was "in this together."  Thank you for pulling together as a team on Friday and continuing to pull together through everything.

P.S. Especially today when we are so short staffed!

 

Currently reading:

I am enjoying listening to The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth and discussing parts of the book with my Mastermind group on Monday nights. 

I also got a new graphic novel called Twins that I was reading this weekend.  It's part of an SEL collection that Mayo School was gifted thanks to Pam Allyn, Bookelicious and a new family learning community called Dewey that Pam Allyn co-created.  They sent us a whole bunch of books which teachers will be able to borrow to us with their classes. 

Events this week:

Monday - Laura R out

Tuesday - ELA Community of Practice virtual meeting from 4:00-5:30

Wednesday - Liz in an online district training from 8-11

Thursday - CST Meeting @ 8:00, Liz in Franklin for MSAA Board Meeting

**Spirit Week next week - Festive Day, Team/Mayo Spirit Day, Color Wars, Pajama Day

Great things I noticed last week:

• 2nd graders in 2H were working on solving some math sequence patterns. 
  
  
  
• The last STEM class until the new year...they got to program root robots! 

  

  
  
• During bus duty, this K student was proudly displaying his teamwork note he earned. 

  

  
  

Check it out:

Loved finding this graphic...