It's Friday and the last day of school before Thanksgiving break. There is an all school assembly in the gym at 2:00pm and our scholars are going. Gnu, IvyL, and Oreo are escorting them to the assembly. After making butter, eating cornbread and pumpkin pie in the classroom I decide to stay in the room to clean up and put the room back in order. Our classroom is on the opposite side of the school from the gym so when I hear a real loud roar from the gym I'm wondering what is going on. Twice more I hear this roar and can't imagine what is getting several hundred scholars so excited. MiniJ is the first to arrive back in the room which is fairly typical as he is totally incapable of walking without someone holding his hand. "Mr. S, the principal got hit in the face with a pie". Within in a matter of a few seconds the other scholars come in the room and they are all wound up. "Mr. S, Mr. S, the principal got hit in the face with a pie." I don't know what the Big B's message was to the students but I have to believe that in the one hundred plus year history of our school there was never a louder roar from our gym. The Big B is an amazing leader. No, not because she was hit in the face with a pie but because when she first arrived we were an F school and after two years of her leadership we are a B school. Will we rise to the level of an A school? It's just a matter of time.
I met the two sixth grade teachers about four years ago when I was a volunteer. You should have a little familiarity with them as they have the Poet Tree outside their room. If you need to refresh your memory read the post titled Ladies It's A Dead Stick. A few weeks ago these two teachers organized a Veterans Day program for our school. The opening involved the ROTC carrying in the colors and placing them in a stand at the front of the gym. Their precision in doing this was amazing to watch. There were guest speakers that were veterans. One of the gentlemen that spoke spent twenty four years serving our country. He arrived in his full dress uniform. My experience in the military told me that the ribbons on this gentleman's uniform indicated that he risked his life a number of times defending our freedoms. The students played a role speaking, singing and playing musical instruments. Another ROTC group completed a very precise drill using their weapons that was truly impressive. To honor all of the fallen veterans a member of our school staff played taps. His trumpet permeated the gym and the entire student body plus guests were dead silent. The program these two teachers put together after school was out for the day made me proud to be a veteran and a colleague of theirs.
We have a school running club. As a reminder this is a PreK through 6th grade school centered in a low social economic neighborhood. We don't have a track surrounded by elaborate athletic fields. When the scholars were training for the 5K (3.1 mile) run they run the school hallways and when weather permitted they run laps around the school building. Not one scholar was wearing high tech running clothes or shoes, they run in what they wore to school. Through the concerted effort of teachers this running club of forty four scholars trained and then participated in the 5K portion of the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. On the day of the race the running conditions were poor. It was cloudy and cold, not ideal conditions for any age group runner. Forty one of the fourth four runners showed up for the race. Forty one runners finished the race. Forty one runners came into school the next Monday with their participants medal hanging around their neck. Forty one runners had huge smiles on their face when they were asked to show someone their medal. By the way, I don't think any of the teachers are avid runs but day after day they spent their free time after school working with our scholars so they could participate in this running event.
I was going to stop with the runners club comment but decided to add one more. Hopefully this isn't too lengthy.
The school Parent Involvement Liaison in conjunction with our school Social Worker decided to start a food pantry with the Thanksgiving holiday approaching. Emails were sent to the entire staff and flyers were sent home with each of the school's scholars seeking donations. The donation request was for either food or if a parental units finances allowed, cash. The food pantry was set up in a vacant classroom right next to where I have my view from the back of the room so I watched daily to see what donations arrived. Slowly, the food pantry inventory grew. Daily I watched scholars arrive at school with one or two food items. Weekly I watched teachers bring in significant amounts of food. A church that a staff member worships at supported the pantry. About a week before Thanksgiving arrived our Parent Involvement Liaison was in the food pantry so I walked into the room. "Isn't this just absolutely wonderful," she said to me. I agreed as I looked around at all the food donations that came from school families that are predominately from a low social economic background. The morning after the food was donated I looked into our school's makeshift food pantry. The food was gone and the room sat empty. The huge commitment of time put in by our Parent Involvement Liaison and our school Social Worker turned into a real positive for many of our school families.
On Monday, December 1st, school will be back in session and the next challenge will face our Parent Involvement Liaison and school Social Worker, Christmas. It will be interesting to see if they take on such a huge task again with so little time. If they do I'll be there again to provide as much assistance as I can. I you are interested in..........
It's Thanksgiving evening. The meal has been consumed, dishes cleaned and now Christmas decorations are being removed from storage. My wife and I have a lot to be thankful for; good health, employment, a wonder family and so many life long friends. I also would like to thank the people who have continued to read my blog. The fact that so many people continue to read it is absolutely amazing. In a few minutes I'll hit the publish button for the seventy fourth time in the past eight months. I'll say it again, thanks everyone for reading my blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment