Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

The school is rustlin' with Christmas parties and crafts; the Santa Shop is almost completely sold out and all of the Holiday performances are over.

It was a wonderful last couple of weeks at Kennedy Elementary School. I am almost sad to see it all over, but it is very exciting to have a long Christmas break the next couple of weeks. It is also well-deserved.

I hope that every student, parent, community member, and teacher has a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I will see you on January 6th ready to go. When we get back, there will be 61 days until the CRCT. We will "Slam Dunk It", but we ALL need to come back ready to work.

The Week Before Christmas

The week before Christmas is always fun if you are in an Elementary School. It is amazing to see teachers prepare lessons that continue to teach the Georgia Performance Standards, but also get the students involved in the holiday spirit. Today I saw Mrs. Williams tie in sequencing skills along with making predictions as she read the book Night Tree. The students were engaged in the story and you could also hear them talk about their own holiday traditions. I saw Mrs. Watrous' class making Christmas Tree decorations using triangles and trapezoids. Mrs. Harwell and Mrs. Patterson used Olive, the Other Reindeer, as an activating strategy to engage their students in a lesson. Yesterday I saw our SCOPE Classes present books as gifts to the library as part of their poetry reading. I also saw our 4th Grade students getting the final touches on their show, Elves Impersonator. You should come out and see it Wednesday night at 6:45.

What a Wonderful Partner!

Today was a fantastic day. One of our Partners in Education is Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi has a philanthropic program that looks to assist with special needs programs around the country. The local Mitsubishi plant in Braselton, Georgia has partnered up with the Kennedy Special Education program for the last few years. They have provided Christmas presents to our special needs students, have assisted with small programs, made donations for our carnivals, and have invited our special needs students to participate in their hallway golf fundraiser. But today, they out did themselves. Today they presented our special needs program with a check for $6,083.00. This money will assist with so many needs for our special needs program. We sincerely appreciate Chuck Painter, Peggy Bray, Mike Stapleton, Martha Mantlow, and Brent Coleman from Mitsubishi for taking time out of their day to spend with our entire special needs program. Not only did they present us with the check, they also brought a gift for each of our students. They even have decided that they will be replacing our big screen TV for a brand new Mitsubishi big screen.
Mitsubishi is truly a REMARKABLE partner!!!

It is 9 o'clock and all is well!!

I can still remember my 5th grade holiday performance at Vanderlyn Elementary school. It was 1981 and I was the light keeper. I had one line: "It is 9 O'clock and all is well!" My mom made me wear knickers and a bowler hat. I was embarrassed, but I believe she was very proud. It is amazing that I still remember it that well.





The next two weeks, Kennedy Elementary School will be doing the same. We will have two different groups putting on Holiday performances. This week (Thursday, December 10th 8:10am, 9:20am, 6:45pm at KES and Friday, December 11th 10:00am at the PDC) our Special Education program will be putting on "An I CAN Christmas". This is the second year they have done it, and this year promises to be bigger and better than last year. Next week, our 4th Graders will be putting on "The Elves' Impersonator". There will be a night time performance on Wednesday, December 16th at 6:45 and then two on Thursday December 17th (8:15 & 9:15). I hope that you can come out and enjoy a performance or two with us.

Glad to be back at Kennedy

I loved the long Thanksgiving Break, but I was really glad to be back at Kennedy Elementary School this week. We have moved from November to December and are really getting into the Holiday spirit. The looks wonderful all decorated with Holiday ornaments, and our festival of Grade level trees looks even better than last year. You should come out and see it.

We wasted no time coming back from the break to get right into things. Yesterday we had our Quality Assurance Team visit (QAT). This where teachers and administrators from other schools within Barrow County come out and observe classes. Well, let me tell you that the Kennedy teachers and students did not disappoint. Some of the comments that we received were: "Kennedy is a very engaging place to be."; "Classrooms had a positive, warm feeling."; "Joyful learning going on in every classroom."; and "All teachers used positive reinforcement and showed excitement for teaching." It was a great visit, and I am very proud of our students and teachers.

The pride did not stop after the visit though. Last night at the board meeting, Kennedy Elementary School was a big time winner (I felt like Taylor Swift at the American Music Awards this year with all the accolades received). Kennedy was recognized as a Distinguished Title I school for the 7th consecutive year; Two Kennedy students (Cassandra Weber and Carla Hernandez) were recognized as winners in the Georgia Fire and Safety Commissioner's awards for their art work; and Kennedy Elementary School also won the "Clean School Award" for the month of November. It was a great night. I was very proud of our teachers, students, and Mr. Freddie, Ms. Carlotta, Ms. Arvora, and Mr. Billy for their hard work and dedication to Kennedy Elementary School.