Congratulations Mrs. Mays!

One of the best but most difficult things to do at a school is to pick the Teacher of the Year. It is difficult because you have to choose 1 from a group of more than 50 wonderful teachers. This year was no different. The staff at Kennedy narrowed it down to 4 truly outstanding candidates, Tracey Hixson, Nicole Mays, Tonia Paramore, and Carrie Tilson. All 4 of them completed the application process for

County Teacher of the Year by turning in some of the most heart felt and fantastic narratives of why they teach. They brought tears to the eyes of some teacher of the year selection committee members as they read them. That was followed up by observations of what they do best, TEACH. The committee saw 4 outstanding lessons. In those lessons the committee saw teachers investing in the lives of students by engaging them and encouraging them. They saw adults who truly have a passion for what they do share that passion with our future. They shared this passion by presenting knowledge, skills, and standards to the students in ways that they could understand and apply. If there was a gap in their understanding, these wonderful ladies patiently filled those gaps by helping these students to make concrete connections to their lives. Whether it was Mrs. Paramore trying to help students learn how

to persuade by modeling her love for English peas (something she really despises), Mrs. Tilson bringing the Olympic games to the students so they can create their self-portraits, Mrs. Hixson helping students to really visualize their sentences so they can create “EXTRAORDINARY” sentences, or Mrs. Mays having an individualized lesson for each student, these teachers TAUGHT with excitement and passion and the students “got it” and LEARNED. The writings and lessons were all wonderful and ALL four of them deserved to be the Teacher of the Year, but only 1 can be chosen. After evaluating and discussing all of the wonderful things we saw and read, the committee came to a unanimous decision of selecting Mrs. Nicole Mays as Kennedy Elementary School’s Teacher of the Year for 2010-2011.

Nicole has been teaching Special Education at Kennedy Elementary School for 8 years and is also a former student at KES. Mrs. Mays, along with her instructional assistants Jane Pfefferle and Todd Anglin, have created a learning environment for her special needs children that allows each one of them to feel success at their own pace. Nicole incorporates technology into her lessons on a daily basis. She has been able to turn her white board interactive by using a Wii remote. This technology is

incorporated with other software to allow students to have audio/visual, tactile, and kinesthetic stimuli. Nicole is also innovative in how she has created a “Summer Camp” for her children. She takes time during the summer to meet on small group and individual basis with her children to expose them to many exciting learning experiences that support her students’ functional and social goals. This type of innovation and dedication allows her children to not only meet but exceed their goals. I

truly believe that we will be well represented by Mrs. Nicole Mays at the County Level. Congratulations!

I also want to take the time to thank our committee for all they did to make this selection possible. Mrs. Jane Hawkins from CBT Bank in Wal-Mart took half of her day to assist in our decision. I appreciate her support of Kennedy Elementary School. I would also like to thank Mrs. Dana Ballard, last year’s Teacher of the Year, for her help. It was wonderful to hear her insight into teaching as we made the decision.

Thanks needs to go to Dr. Gale Jordan, Assistant Principal, for her help in bringing expertise and professionalism to the decision process. Lastly, I need to thank Leigh Sears, Instructional Facilitator at KES and former Teacher of the Year, for her expertise and professionalism as we made our decision. Mrs. Sears is also the one responsible for organizing the entire selection process. She is the one who put together our schedule for observing, our packets to read, and made sure that we had lunch and breakfast available for our committee and the teachers. There is so much work that goes into making sure that this selection goes off without any problems, and Mrs. Sears did a wonderful job of doing it.

Patritotism and Commitment

I have spent the last few days traveling with Mrs. Dercola's Class Flat Stanley. We went to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was an amazing experience to see the love that people have for their country and the dedication that the athletes have to be successful. It made me think about the Character Education terms that we have discussed during the morning announcements the last two weeks and what our next term needs to be for the following two weeks.

For the last two weeks on the morning announcements, we have talked about Patriotism: A love for and loyalty to one's country. It was very evident everywhere I went in Vancouver that people in every country in the world are Patriotic. Whether it was the Latvian curling team that I saw at a store or the Canada TV sports anchor that took his picture with Flat Stanley, people all over the world have a love for and loyalty to their country. This never more evident than at the Olympic Games. I know that I love the USA, but there are people in every country on this globe that feel the same way that I do about their country. I am glad that we have been teaching the students at KES about loving their country and respecting what our ancestors have done to make it the best country in the world, but I also love that we teach our students to respect and appreciate those that come from different cultures or countries. THAT IS WHAT MAKES US GREAT!!

Our next character term will be commitment:
Alignment of one’s motives, resources, priorities, and goals to fulfill a specific mission, accomplish a specific task or follow a specific person.

Commitment was also evident at the Olympics. The athletes that have aligned their motive, resources, priorities, and goals to win Olympic Gold has been an inspiration to everyone watching. It does not matter whether they won or not, to be committed to a specific mission gives you a sense of purpose and something to look forward to each day. We do the same thing here at Kennedy. We ask our teachers and students to align their motives, resources, priorities, and goals to fulfill a specific mission and accomplish a specific task. Our mission at Kennedy is to provide an educational experience for each child that will challenge them to go beyond what they feel they can do. We want them to believe that they can not only achieve, but OVERACHIEVE. We have also asked our students to be committed to accomplish a specific task. That task is get an 800 or higher on the CRCT. In order to do this, the students and teachers need to align resource to help them accomplish this task. That is why we have created so many practice CRCT tests on www.georgiaoas.org . If students make it a priority to take one of these each day, they will be committed to passing that test and they will find themselves on the gold medal stand as well.

Trip to the Olympics

I have had one amazing opportunity present itself to me. My brother who lives in Seattle has tickets to the Olympics. I had to take him up on the offer, so I flew out to Seattle Thursday after work, and we will be going to the Olympics to see hockey. I have taken Flat Stanley from Ms. Dercola's first grade class on the trip with me and will be uploading pictures as I get them. This picture is from the top of the Space Needle. In the background is Mr. Ranier which is the tallest peak in the continental US. I will be sending more later. I just thought it would be neat to see what Flat Stanley from Kennedy Elementary was doing in Seattle and Vancouver.

Enjoy the Looooong weekend

Just a reminder that we will be closed tomorrow, Friday, February 12th and Monday, February 15th. Please enjoy the time with your family, but if you need something to keep your child occupied for about 15 minutes please have them take practice CRCT tests on www.georgiaoas.org . We have gone over 1000 tests taken, but are trying to get 3,000 with an 80% passing rate (right now we are at 73%). Keep working: "Don't Achieve...OVERACHIEVE!!"

Wax Museum

Today our 4th Graders put on their annual American Revolution Wax Museum. It was really neat to hear students from all 4 classes bring back to life some of our "Founding Founders" and those men and woman who shaped the foundation of our country.
I learned some very interesting things about our Patriots. I did not know that Benjamin Franklin invented a chair that turned into a ladder. It was news to me that both John Adams AND Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4th, 1826 (Exactly 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence). I also learned that Betsy Ross was married 3 times and that George Washington actually knocked on her door and asked her personally to sew a flag (I wonder if he would have emailed her today?). The most interesting thing I learned was that Deborah Sampson impersonated a man in order to serve in the Army.
I am so proud of all of our 4th Graders and the teachers for this culminating activity. It was very very good! They did not just achieve, they OVERACHIEVED!

Power Hour

Our student are only 38 school days away from taking the CRCT. This test is very important for all students, but even more important to our 3rd and 5th Graders because they have to pass certain sections to be promoted to the next grade.
It bothers me that ONE test given late in the year is a determining factor to student promotion. At Kennedy, we don't teach test takers; we teach young people who will be leaders in this country in 20 years or so. We need to teach them Math, Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts, PE, Music, and Art, but we also need to teach them to think critically, to be respectful and responsible, and we need to teach them how to get along with other. That is what will make our country thrive in the future, not people who were good test takers. I don't like the pressure we have put on teachers to get them ready for the test, or the anxiety we have placed on students and parents because of this test. It is not fair because it does not show the student as a whole. It only gives a 1 week snapshot of them.
While I don't like it, I do understand that is a good way of assessing our student progress on the Standards being taught. Because of that understanding, we have created a program for some of our 3rd and 5th graders to help get them prepared for the CRCT in 38 days. We are working with certain students a few days a week to get them a little extra help in getting prepared. It has quickly become one of my favorite parts of the day. I am working with some 5th graders on Math skills. Being a former high school math teacher, I LOVE the opportunity I have to teach math again. I have been excited about teaching it and can't wait to see the results when we get those scores back.

Don't Achieve...OVERACHIEVE!! week4

We are continuing with our CRCT prep drive. As of right now, we have taken over 370 CRCT practice tests and have passed 294 of them (79%). While I am proud of the fact we have taken that many, that means that less than two-thirds of our students have taken a test (That is if each of test was taken by a different person.) The truth of the matter is that only 50 different students have taken these tests. That is only 8% of our students. www.georgiaoas.org is a wonderful opportunity for students to practice taking tests like they will see in April. I strongly encourage all parents to go to the site and have your students practice taking those tests!!!

Great Guest Speakers

We had a fantastic week of guest speakers this week at Kennedy. On Thursday, we had Dr. Ouzts from Gainesville College (Yes, Mrs. Ouzts' husband!) talk to our 4th Graders about the Revolutionary War. He also spoke to our 5th Graders about World War I. It was very exciting to hear from a professor of history about what really happened. Most of the facts we learned about are in our textbooks, but Dr. Ouzts shared some info that was not! Thanks.

On Friday, we were lucky to have Health M Powers come and speak to the students about the special power that they all have to make healthy choices. Our 3-5 grade students were able to use the remote answering system to solve some healthy choice problems while our younger students learned songs and cheers to remind them of the healthy choices they should make. We are very lucky to be partnered up with Health M Powers; they have provided us with so many useful tools to incorporate health into all lessons.

We also had Mr. Todd Nickelson from the Oconee River Georgia Youth Science and Technology Center come and talk to our 4th and 5th Graders about participating in the Science Fair. Mr. Nickelson got all of the students excited about participating in April as he challenged them to think about what topics might interest them and what problems they can solve as they go through the Scientific Method.

Teachers at Kennedy Elementary School work so hard to provide the best education for our students, and it is always nice when we can have guest to come and support that as well.

Black History Month and American Heart Month

It is hard to believe that we have turned the page on the calendar and are now in February. In case you did not know, February is Black History Month. At KES, we are celebrating it by taking a moment each day on the morning announcements to read about an African-American who has had a positive impact on our country. We have already shared about Thurgood Marshall (First African-American Supreme Court Judge), Shirley Chisholm (Congresswoman from New York), and Colin Powell. We have a couple more political leaders this week and will be highlighting entertainers next week.
February is also American Heart Month. That makes sense because it is in February when we celebrate the people that we love on Valentine's Day. That is one reason it is Heart Month, but the other reason is to encourage people to make healthy choices that will strengthen their hearts so that they can live longer. This week alone, we have had the Dacula Elementary School Jmp Rope Team perform for us. The Kennedy students were very respectful as they watched 3r-5th graders from Dacula perform some amazing tricks with jump ropes. I know a lot of our students were so excited by it that they asked coach Thompson if he would start a team at Kennedy. That would be really cool! We will also have another presentation on Friday when Health M Powers comes to do the healthy choice assemblies for us. These presentations will talk to students about making healthy choices that will make their bodies stronger.
While February is "officially" Black History and American Heart month, it has become "unofficially" 5th Graders Write Month. Our 5th Graders have started their final preparations for the Georgia Writing Assessment in March by taking all the weeks in February to take an entire piece of writing completely through the writing process (Brainstorm -> Rough Draft -> Revise and Edit -> Publish (final copy)). So far they have done a persuasive essay about why one of their relatives should win "Relative of the Year". The 5th Grade teachers along with other Kennedy Staff spent the weekend scoring them to pick a "Best of the Best" writing sample for each class. The winners were Gabe Rodriguez (Allen), Phoebe Milledge (Hixson), and Ryan Cavey (Liptak). Each of them got to eat lunch with Mrs. Sears and me today. I look forward to scoring the samples this weekend. The genre is informational writing. They are telling us about their day as the President of the United States. I am very proud of how much our 5th Graders are improving in their writing.