Well, after being very nervous about the first day of pre-planning, the week has gone vey well. It was great to have all the teachers at school and to see the excitement on the kids' faces today as they met their teachers at Open House!! The week has flown by; it is truly unbelievable that we will start the 2009-2010 school year with kids in 4 days! It is going to be a remarkable! Goals for next week:
1) Get all the kids that come to KES home from KES.
2) Continue to work to build a supportive and active PTO for Kennedy Elementary (HINT HINT HINT: We will be having parent meetings on Tuesday, August 4th!!!)
3) Tell each teacher that works at KES how much I appreciate all their hardwork and love for seeing kids be successful!!!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
The Night before!
Twas the night before teachers came back to school and this principal is hoping he's ready so he doesn't look like a fool.
The handbooks are ready and the schedules are too; the supply lists have been sent out and they all contain Elmer's glue.
The janitors have gotten the school all spiffy; because the teachers and students will be here in a jiffy.
I guess that is about all the poetry that I can muster right now.
I always got nervous the night before the kids came when I was a teacher and always got nervous before my first game of the year when I played ball. I get the same way the night before pre-planning and the first day for teachers. This night is NO exception. I can not wait until tomorrow, but I worry that I will not set the tone in a positive light or forget to tell them something that they need to hear to know that I appreciate them and love them. I always say that it doesn't matter if I am ready because they are coming any way, but I really want to be ready to make sure they know that I care for them and will do whatever it take to make sure they can be successful. When the teachers are successful and love the kids, the kids will all be successful.
It is going to be a remarkable year, and I hope it all starts tomorrow with a remarkable first day of pre-planning.
The handbooks are ready and the schedules are too; the supply lists have been sent out and they all contain Elmer's glue.
The janitors have gotten the school all spiffy; because the teachers and students will be here in a jiffy.
I guess that is about all the poetry that I can muster right now.
I always got nervous the night before the kids came when I was a teacher and always got nervous before my first game of the year when I played ball. I get the same way the night before pre-planning and the first day for teachers. This night is NO exception. I can not wait until tomorrow, but I worry that I will not set the tone in a positive light or forget to tell them something that they need to hear to know that I appreciate them and love them. I always say that it doesn't matter if I am ready because they are coming any way, but I really want to be ready to make sure they know that I care for them and will do whatever it take to make sure they can be successful. When the teachers are successful and love the kids, the kids will all be successful.
It is going to be a remarkable year, and I hope it all starts tomorrow with a remarkable first day of pre-planning.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Only a few more days!
I have been back from vacation for a few days now and have been really getting back to focusing on the new school year. It seems that we have everything in place and are pretty much ready to go. My head must still be on vacation or something, because I have a strange feeling that I am missing something to be this ready! The handbook is printed, the class lists have been sent out, the schedules made; it just seems we have it all in place. I guess now all I need is the teachers to all be here and then the kiddos.
I remember a few years ago when I taught coming in a few days early to start setting up my room. That was such a neat feeling! You have so many great ideas and exciting plans and nothing ( angry parents, demands from administration, unruly kids, or stress) can put a monkey wrench in those plans. I have had several teachers up here this week setting up, and I envy what they are doing. I miss that excitement of planning a school year that will directly involve me in the lives of our future leaders. That is what teaching is all about: Having the opportunity and privilege to build a relationship and impact a life of a person who will be a future doctor, lawyer, pro athlete, politician, or teacher. I feel blessed, don't get me wrong, to have my job and be a leader of a school, but I still miss that everyday, direct relationship with young people. They bring so much excitement and perspective to life. They are still in love with their teacher and want to learn. I miss that!
I guess I just need to make sure that I take more time this school year to slow down and get in those classrooms more to soak up that love for learning.
Only 5 more days until the teachers get here and only 11 more until I have them all in place to be a REMARKABLE school!
I remember a few years ago when I taught coming in a few days early to start setting up my room. That was such a neat feeling! You have so many great ideas and exciting plans and nothing ( angry parents, demands from administration, unruly kids, or stress) can put a monkey wrench in those plans. I have had several teachers up here this week setting up, and I envy what they are doing. I miss that excitement of planning a school year that will directly involve me in the lives of our future leaders. That is what teaching is all about: Having the opportunity and privilege to build a relationship and impact a life of a person who will be a future doctor, lawyer, pro athlete, politician, or teacher. I feel blessed, don't get me wrong, to have my job and be a leader of a school, but I still miss that everyday, direct relationship with young people. They bring so much excitement and perspective to life. They are still in love with their teacher and want to learn. I miss that!
I guess I just need to make sure that I take more time this school year to slow down and get in those classrooms more to soak up that love for learning.
Only 5 more days until the teachers get here and only 11 more until I have them all in place to be a REMARKABLE school!
Monday, July 20, 2009
The last week before the teachers return!!
I just got back from vacation in Florida, and now it is really getting exciting because there is only 1 week until the teachers come back to work. It is very hard to believe that the summer has come and gone so quickly, but I can not wait to get the 2009-2010 school year started. We are going to have a remarkable year as we pick up where we left off from last year and accomplish even more this year.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Welcome Back Message for 09-10 School Year
It is my pleasure to serve you as Principal of Kennedy Elementary! I feel truly blessed that you place your trust in us to educate your children every day. All of us at Kennedy are eager and excited to begin what promises to be the best year ever. This year is going to be “Remarkable” as we continue to strive to produce young people who are Ready, Respectful, and Responsible and will positively impact our society in the future.
We will work tirelessly to provide challenging educational opportunities for your child each day they are here, but to be as successful as we can be, we need your help. Open communication is vital to insure a successful home-school partnership throughout the year. Please make every effort throughout the year to be involved and stay in touch with us. The more you are involved with your child’s classroom, the better your child’s school experience will be!
Every other week I publish the Kennedy Connection newsletter. This letter will keep you informed of upcoming events within the Kennedy Community as well as give you a glimpse of what is happening academically in each grade level. This newsletter is also sent electronically to the email address you listed on the student locator card. Please also visit our school website, www.barrow.k12.ga.us/kes . You will find it a useful tool to learn more about Kennedy and Barrow County Schools.
As principal, it is important to me that everyone who steps though our doors- staff, students, and parents - are happy and excited to be here! This attitude enables us to meet the challenges of academic excellence in a positive, fun, and nurturing environment. Our mission is to provide our students with opportunities to meet individual needs and to insure that every child has experiences that challenge them to go further than they thought they could. We want them to believe that they can succeed and have many opportunities to be successful.
We will meet this mission with the support and involvement of our parents and community. With your help and support, we will succeed in our mission, creating a great place for students to learn and teachers to teach.
When we ALL work together and do things with the best interests of our students as the focus, we will be a Remarkable school!
If I can ever be of assistance, please call or email me! It is through honest and open communication that I can best serve our students.
Sincerely
Ryan Butcher
We will work tirelessly to provide challenging educational opportunities for your child each day they are here, but to be as successful as we can be, we need your help. Open communication is vital to insure a successful home-school partnership throughout the year. Please make every effort throughout the year to be involved and stay in touch with us. The more you are involved with your child’s classroom, the better your child’s school experience will be!
Every other week I publish the Kennedy Connection newsletter. This letter will keep you informed of upcoming events within the Kennedy Community as well as give you a glimpse of what is happening academically in each grade level. This newsletter is also sent electronically to the email address you listed on the student locator card. Please also visit our school website, www.barrow.k12.ga.us/kes . You will find it a useful tool to learn more about Kennedy and Barrow County Schools.
As principal, it is important to me that everyone who steps though our doors- staff, students, and parents - are happy and excited to be here! This attitude enables us to meet the challenges of academic excellence in a positive, fun, and nurturing environment. Our mission is to provide our students with opportunities to meet individual needs and to insure that every child has experiences that challenge them to go further than they thought they could. We want them to believe that they can succeed and have many opportunities to be successful.
We will meet this mission with the support and involvement of our parents and community. With your help and support, we will succeed in our mission, creating a great place for students to learn and teachers to teach.
When we ALL work together and do things with the best interests of our students as the focus, we will be a Remarkable school!
If I can ever be of assistance, please call or email me! It is through honest and open communication that I can best serve our students.
Sincerely
Ryan Butcher
So proud of Kennedy Elementary School
As I work this summer to prepare for the 2009-2010 school year, I am constantly reminded of how proud I am of the hard work and dedication of the teachers at Kennedy, the parents of the students at Kennedy, and especially the students at Kennedy!
We once again made AYP in all areas and had increases in every area of the CRCT! Even though we made great progress on the CRCT, that does not really show what really happend this past year at KES. Our teachers worked very hard to challenge the students at KES academically, but they also challenged them to be good people who will be successes in the future no matter what they choose to do for a living. That is what makes me so proud to be the principal at Kennedy. My teachers and staff have dedicated themselves to influence our future in a way that makes them Ready, Respectful, and Responsible! We will continue this again in 2009-2010, but we will also add another "R" to the list. That "R" is Remarkable! We are going to be remarkable in the next year!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Check off another one from the list
I have put on the chalkboard a list of all the things that need to be completed before I go on vacation in 2 weeks. These ranged from redoing the staff handbook to finalizing class lists to updating the website look. I have been able to check off a bunch of the things on my list (with lots of help from Dr. J, Ms. Sears, and Ms. McGaha). Today I was able to finish writing the welcome back letter to the teachers and print it off. We will mail it next Tuesday. I don't want to ruin my fabulous teachers' Fourth of July fun :).
Today was also the day that we got our new Promethean Board installed in the Media Center. It is going to be a fantastic tool that Mr. Frame can use to engage all of our future leaders. I can't wait for the networking people to get in here and hook up the cabling so that we can get it going.
A lot of things are getting checked off the list, but there is still a lot to get done before the teachers and students get back. The excitement of how "Remarkable" of a year we are going to have makes it so much easier to get this work complete. I can't wait for my wonderful teachers to come back and get this school ready for what it is designed to do; PREPARE OUR FUTURE!
I am ready to have some time at the beach with my family though!!!
Today was also the day that we got our new Promethean Board installed in the Media Center. It is going to be a fantastic tool that Mr. Frame can use to engage all of our future leaders. I can't wait for the networking people to get in here and hook up the cabling so that we can get it going.
A lot of things are getting checked off the list, but there is still a lot to get done before the teachers and students get back. The excitement of how "Remarkable" of a year we are going to have makes it so much easier to get this work complete. I can't wait for my wonderful teachers to come back and get this school ready for what it is designed to do; PREPARE OUR FUTURE!
I am ready to have some time at the beach with my family though!!!