It Just Keeps Getting Better

Every year I cannot imagine how the teachers, parents and students can make our Literary Pumpkin Festival bigger and better, but they continue to do so. Special thanks go to the PTA for organizing it all and making it happen! Please take a moment and enjoy a look at our literary pumpkins, trick or treating and carnival pictures and just know that you have made memories that will last a lifetime and once again touched the lives of our precious students. Thank you everyone!

My Life As a Reader!

I love to read, I always have. I am a slow reader though. I can remember this really bothering me growing up because everyone always finished before I did. It's not that I had trouble decoding or with my fluency, and I comprehended and synthesized really well. A number of years ago I finally became a skilled enough reading teacher that I could figure out what had caused me to be so slow. I spend a lot of time while I am reading visualizing the story - probably too much time, but its what helps me glean the most from the story. I think every single one of my elementary report cards said "Susan daydreams too much in class...". Well duh, it wasn't that I was thinking about something other than what the teacher was teaching - its that I was busy making mental images of what I was trying to learn!

Let's face it, most of what I read is professional literature, I just don't seem to be able to find the time for much else. Reading professionally as an educator is essential for professional growth and is a huge part of my job - its work. My real love though, is fiction, and more specifically stories full of intrigue or mystery. Reading fiction is like an escape for me, like taking a mini vacation. Unfortunately I can only allow myself this luxury every once and a while because the reading consumes me. I get lost in the story imagining what the characters and setting look like. If I happen across a series I get in to you can just forget about me until I have them all read. I forget time and start neglecting things around me like dishes, laundry, eating and even sleep! I'm beginning book 7 in a series of 9 books I am completely engrossed in right now - and I just started reading 12 days ago! I will hate to see the end of the series come and wait very impatiently for the author to write another. My family will jump for joy because I will finally return from my extended vacation...

What's your life as a reader like?

Celebrating Community Partnerships

When the school was built we wanted it to become an integral part of our community. In fact, one of our Learner Outcomes is to teach our students to be Community Contributors We knew that by making our school the heart of our neighborhood it would be treasured. We open our doors at night for Girl Scouts, home owner's association meetings and church groups. We always hope to give back more than we take. Last school year our local, and brand new, Chick-fil-A approached us about hosting a Chets Creek Spirit Night. Between the hours of 6:00 - 8:00 PM on the second Monday of each month we assist them in hosting the event and they support us by donating a portion of their proceeds during this time frame to our school! They even extended this offer to include a portion of the proceeds any other time during the day of the CCE Spirit Night if the customer mentions the school. This year we are extending and expanding our support of them by having a different grade level group help host the event each month for no other reason than to show our presence in, and support of, the community we serve. Stop by the Pablo Creek Plaza Chick-fil-A at Hodges and Beach in Jacksonville, FL on a CCE Spirit Night this year, have a great meal and spend some time with your favorite teacher. Don't forget to thank Restaurant Operators Jeff and Christine Weir for supporting our school because your dinner out is helping us provide for our classrooms!

October - Resource Team; November - Fifth Grade Team; December - First Grade Team; January - Foundations Team; February - Third Grade Team; March - Kindergarten Team; April - Second Grade Team; May - Fourth Grade Team; June - Office/Administration Team

Remembering 9/11 - 14 Cows for America

The Principals' Book of the Month is a monthly tradition where I get to choose an well written picture book to gift each classroom. A faculty meeting is held to share the book with my teachers along with an instructional strategy that can be used in the classroom with students. It is a highly anticipated event that takes research, planning and meaningful execution. I found our first book for this year while attending the International Reading Association Convention in May. The book was not even published yet but I knew the moment I finished that it was the perfect book for September and I had to get it! One little problem...I was to be in South Carolina on vacation the morning of the Book of the Month presentation. My technology mentor, Melanie Holtsman, and I got together and hatched a plan. Could we get our district to unblock Skype just long enough for me to present Book of the Month live? We presented our case, helped with some trial runs and finally got the answer - YES! It worked beautifully and from my mother in law's kitchen table I presented 14 Cows for America, by Carmen Agra Deedy, to our faculty.

14 Cows for America is the true story of one nation’s incredible and compassionate gift to another. Following the devastating attacks of 9/11, Kimeli, a Maasai warrior, returns to his tribe in western Kenya and relates the tragic events of the attack to his people. They are so moved by the sorrow of the story that they offer a most selfless gesture in an effort to reach out to a country suffering with tremendous grief by giving a gift whose very meaning equals life.

I chose 14 Cows for America as the September Book of the Month to remind us not only of the 9/11 attacks, which targeted the very heart of the American people, but of the extraordinary gifts of compassion shown by people half a world away. Being able to offer any gesture of kindness, big or small, to another selflessly is an important lesson to learn in life. As educators we have the incredible responsibility to not only teach our students the academics but to also provide lessons that shape these lifelong behaviors.

For this presentation we also made a video of me reading the story so that it could also be shown to students throughout the day on September 11.

Read Aloud of 14 Cows for America from Melanie Holtsman on Vimeo.

To learn more about the book and access valuable teaching resources visit the 14 Cows for America website. For a complete write up for this Book of the Month you can visit my Book of the Month Wiki.

“Because there is no nation so powerful it cannot be wounded,
nor a people so small they cannot offer mighty comfort.”

from 14 Cows for America, by Carmen Agra Deedy

I'm Published! Well Kinda...

Last fall I was contacted by one of the authors of our yearlong faculty book study, Web 2.0 New Tools, New Schools and asked to write a short story about how administrators use technology in innovative ways for the new book she was working on. Seems she had stumbled across my blog and liked what she saw. The vignettes in the book are titled One School Leader's Story and mine was to detail how we were accomplishing the implementation of Web 2.0 tools school wide and specifically to address how my blog was used to communicate expectations for teachers. I was completely honored and then almost immediately panicked! Who in the world would want to hear what I have to say? Y'all are forced to listen to me because you have to work with me. I mean really? I super procrastinated on this one but finally got my thoughts out on paper and got it turned in to Lynne Schrum's assistant. Whew! Done! It actually wasn't all that hard. It never is when I am describing the extraordinary work my faculty does with children. I had made up my mind that if she hated it I wouldn't even bother telling anyone I had done it. Turns out she loved it, thought it was wonderful - ha! Five days later another email arrived asking for another story - I couldn't believe it! This time they had me write about how we keep students safe as they access web tools on the internet. Armed with a touch of confidence I didn't procrastinate this time, got it written and submitted. I think I still expected them to send it back as garbage - they didn't. It was just what they needed. Whoa! I have to say that it was a lifetime high when my complimentary copy of Leading 21st Century Schools: Harnessing Technology for Engagement and Achievement arrived this week. There it was - my name along side the name of the school I love - in black and white!! It's just 1 and 3/4 pages of a 212 page book but I can promise you if my Moma was still alive she'd be campaigning for me to win the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature! I'd love to be able to insert what I wrote at this point but I can't - even though I wrote it I don't own it anymore...so you'll just have to buy the book or stop just long enough at my office door. I could probably be pursuaded to read it to you!

Can you hear the music?

Chets Creek is the THRILLER...Can you DIG it?

Before last school year ever ended the careful crafting of this school year began. The organizing, planning and plotting for ways to make the new year better excites me. The WOW factor for kids, but especially for teachers, is a huge part of the plan. I have often been asked why so much goes into planning the first day back for teachers and I can tell you why very plainly - relationships. Heard that before? Relationships are critical in the success of any teacher, and any student in any school anywhere! You build relationships through fun play, building awareness of the gifts of others and creating a laser like focus towards your common goal. That is exactly what our first day back was all about.

I had the occasion this summer to be in the company of several Non-Chets teachers who began to talk about how dull and boring the first day back is, "a real snooze fest," one of them called it. They were not excited to go back and the rolling of the eyes was almost seizure provoking. I was horrified and could only shake my head and apologize to them. I made a little promise to myself right then and there to never be the boring principal who talks their teachers to death the first day back and my mind began to whirl with ideas on how I, me personally, could do something extra special to THRILL my teachers this year. I solicited a little help from some dear friends (the Receptionist, Bookkeeper, Attendance, Copy and Guidance Clerk, Security Clerk, Standards Coach, Literacy Coach and Technology Coach), worked out the costuming, began the practicing and created what I hope was far from a snooze fest to kick the day off with my teachers.

Thriller from Melanie Holtsman on Vimeo.

Every moment of time spent here will be a carefully measured beat in creating a rhythm that is sure to make for a masterpiece. An orchestration of learning that produces a symphony of success. Just another school, just another school year - NOT!!! Chets is not and will never be just another school and this certainly won't be just another school year. In the words of Vincent Price "Chets Creek is the THRILLER...Can you DIG it?"

Can you hear the music?

End of the Year? Nope, It's Just the Beginning!

Last year we packed our bags, squashed our fears and embarked on a quest, a virtual journey that took us beyond the borders of the classroom and to the far reaching corners of the Earth. This year is about experiencing life through the moves of music.

Kindergarten will keep it simple as their little ones boot scoot and boogie into school on a Country beat.

First Grade will do the bump and hustle as they master reading and math in the glow a sparkling Disco ball.

Second grade will face the bright lights of Broadway and show their talents to the musical Showtunes.

Our Resources will hit the high notes like the masters of the everlasting Classics.

Third Grade will synthesize all learning styles into a sound as smooth as Carribean rhythms.

Fourth Grade will know their skills so well that they’ll be able to improvise like the great Jazz musicians.

And Fifth Grade won’t stop without Rockin' N Rollin' us all year long!

Imagine one person banging away day after day on an instrument trying to play a symphony. Imagine trying to make a piano sound like a guitar or a trombone like a flute. Imagine trying to figure out the melody when you should be playing harmony. H.E. Luccock said, "No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it." It takes skilled musicians who have studied, and continue to perfect their craft working together to put each note in just the right place so that the sounds blend together into something so moving that the listener is changed forever. Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination,and life to everything. Next year at Chets Creek Elementary we’ll be orchestrating a symphony of student success. So join our Learning Conductors as we work on tuning our instruments, reading the score perfectly, moving our musicians to deliver each note with just the right timing and put together a beautiful masterpiece the likes of which no one has ever seen or heard.



Chets Creek Elementary: Orchestrating a Symphony of Student Success!