February 5, 2008

Legend has it that when Cortez landed on the shores of what later became Mexico; he issued the famous order, "Burn the boats!" Now that is commitment! I write this because that is exactly what I have been witnessing at Swift Creek Elementary School. I have been witnessing an unwavering commitment on the staff of Swift Creek to do whatever it takes to meet students’ needs. Let me give you a couple of examples:

I walked into the media center today and there were three parents working with groups of students on enrichment activities for students that were exceeding benchmarks. I kept walking and saw the first grade team in a planning session and discussing how they would restructure part of their schedule and elicit parent volunteers to help work with a small group of students that were struggling to re-tell story elements. Down the hall (and later in the day), I noticed the fifth grade teachers discussing better ways to teach students the all-elusive concept of fractions. The fourth grade team was preparing a staff development for the teachers on what skills are needed to pass the fourth grade writing test. Then I sat in a meeting of the administrative team where we studied mid-year reading levels and had a phenomenal conversation about how we would restructure duties and different aspects of the school schedule to create more teaching time so that we could ensure that all students are meeting benchmarks. I could go on and on about all the other things, but the PTA newsletter isn’t long enough. I did want you to know about this because we are burning the boats, we are committed and we will do whatever it takes to meet the needs of all the children. I hope you will see this commitment and you will join us on the shores when we ask for you to come in and help with a small group or tutor one on one. I truly believe that if we work as a team we will reach our school vision: Everyone will learn and succeed.

With that said, there are several kudos I want to give out. Kudos to Ms. Behrend and the kindergarten students on a wonderful performance – how cute and exciting to see the passion that those kids had towards learning music. Kudos to Ms. Rhodes and all the parent volunteers on a wonderful career day – the students were engaged, ROARed, asked great questions, and truly learned a lot. Kudos to Ms. Faneck for taking the fourth and fifth grade girls to the NCSU GWIS (Girls and Women in Sports) basketball game. Kudos to Ms. King for two things – for being selected to participate and attend a conference on science instruction in California and for training over 35 parents to teach the AG enrichment kits. Kudos to Ms. Jones for having several teachers contact her because of her fabulous web-site and come to observe her teaching. Kudos to the second grade team and Ms. Bornman for getting their web-sites up and running. Finally, kudos to Ms. Pittman for presenting at a Media Specialist meeting and knocking everyone’s socks off. The danger of giving kudos is that I am sure I forgot someone- please forgive me.

Thanks for all you do and continue to ROAR!!!
Jim